Parenting Life

The “Momo Challenge”. The Twitter Thread That Sums It Up.

Posted on February 28, 2019 by DevonDad Geek Stuff Parenting Life 0

I wasn’t going to post “that” picture of The Momo Challenge. But I loved this thread from Jim Waterson, the Media Editor from The Guardian. (Click the text below to open up more in Twitter)

Among various things:
1) A feedback loop with schools/police reading stories, issuing warnings, creating more stories
2) Mirror quoting an unsourced 130 Russian deaths figure from a previous hoax
3) Fake YouTube claims sourced to a Hull primary school
4) Kids now genuinely scared
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) February 28, 2019

A lot of this relies on people believing their local school or police force knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the internet. Unfortunately most don’t have a clue and are sending letters to parents warning of non-existent issues like YouTube videos being “hacked”.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) February 28, 2019

If you read nothing else, please read this from the article:

The UK Safer Internet Centre called the claims “fake news”. And YouTube said it had seen no evidence of videos showing or promoting the Momo challenge on its platform.
The NSPCC said there is no confirmed evidence that the phenomenon is actually posing a threat to British children and said they have received more phone calls about it from members of the media than concerned parents.
A Samaritans spokesperson was similarly sceptical, saying: “These stories being highly publicised and starting a panic means vulnerable people get to know about it and that creates a risk.”
theguardian.com

It does feel we are reaching some sort of feedback loop stage of this whole thing. Basically freaked out adults, are talking to their kids, and accidently freaking them out in the process.

Maybe The Momo Challenge is actually about how many kids could get accidentally freaked out by creepy lady with big eyes?

The “Momo Challenge”.

Posted on February 27, 2019 by DevonDad Geek Stuff Parenting Life 0

No, I’m not going to post any of those pictures of the Momo Challenge. Yeah you know the ones, the pictures of that creepy lady with big eyes. She’s probably found on your Facebook.

Creepy lady associated with a suicide game aimed at kids. Yeah flip, be worried about that one. She and it are the stuff of nightmares.

I’ve had a dig around the internet about the Momo Challenge. While there seems to be concerning stuff there, its worth bearing in mind some of the following…

The Momo challenge is an alleged form of cyberbullying which spreads over the phone messaging service WhatsApp. Children receive threats from an anonymous number associated with a picture of “Momo” – an alien-like woman with bulging eyes, an eerie stretched smile, and straggly hair. Momo allegedly forces children to undertake dangerous tasks – up to and including suicide – by threatening them with violence.

https://inews.co.uk/

Creepy, but The Daily Mail could only manage this

A 12-year-old girl from Argentina allegedly took her life after playing the game
dailymail.co.uk

Allegedly. The Buenos Aires Times article from the time can be found here. While it says a link was investigated. There doesn’t seem to be anything confirmed.

The BBC article on this seems to focus on the (in comparison) more basic data security issues that Momo presents:

Momo may be creepy, but police believe it is clear it is being used by hackers to harvest information.
Officers in Northern Ireland moved to reassure parents about the doll figure with bulging eyes and a creepy grin.
https://www.bbc.co.uk

But should people be concerned? The answer from rollingstone.com is no…

The Momo Challenge and the subsequent moral panic it has spawned is eerily similar to that inspired by the “Blue Whale” challenge, a Russia-based phenomenon that went viral last year. According to reports in the Russian media, the Blue Whale challenge involved teenagers following a series of increasingly self-harmful tasks over the course of 50 days, culminating with them being encouraged to take their own lives.
Additional reports linking Blue Whale to other teen suicides, like that of 15-year-old Isaiah Gonzalez from San Antonio, have proven to be largely uncorroborated. “There’s no real truth to [games like the Momo Challenge] or evidence that it’s a real threat,” says Benjamin Radford, a folklorist and research fellow for the Committee for Skeptic Inquiry.
https://www.rollingstone.com

The independent, suggests the we (parents) should be more concerned about our own wellbeing

“In terms of whether Blue Whale did cause the deaths of any children as was reported, this has been difficult to validate – however there is more evidence to suggest parents talked about their fears of their children undertaking the challenge, rather than their children actually doing so,” Sugiura says. Momo, she says, seems to be following the same pattern. “It is more likely to endanger the well-being of parents and carers, concerned about their children.”

https://inews.co.uk

I guess this is all a drawn out way for me to say. Can we please stop sharing pictures of that creepy lady character. She’s creepy. We’re creeping ourselves out, and possibly terrifying any kids who see the images over our shoulders.

Please read the above links for more information, and dont have nightmares.

Frozen 2 Trailer

Posted on February 13, 2019 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

Just in case you’ve not already seen the Frozen 2 Trailer…

Frozen 2 Trailer

After showing her the trailer, we asked Little Sofa what she thought of Frozen 2.

“Good” was the reply.

I guess that means shes excited?

The Gummy Bear Song

Posted on February 3, 2019 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

I was introduced to this earlier. I mean, I was subjected to this – whats known as The Gummy Bear Song.

I felt it only right to pass the joy on…

At least its not more Baby Shark..

Mary, and Her Christmas Parenting Problems

Posted on December 22, 2018 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

All parents have some parenting problems of some shape or form. For most it’s a case of NEVER SLEEPING, but for others it could be something like the kids NEVER EATING (when they are meant to), or never ever having two tidy rooms in the house.

For Mary, as in Jesus’ mum, I guess it was a slightly different set of problems she had when Jesus was born.

The problems we could come up with so far are…

Many, many, unexpected guests.
Joseph nipping out with the shepherds to wet the baby’s head.
The place (presumingly) looking like a barn.
Dealing with a Talking Donkey. (According to a Nativity I’ve seen)
Possibly still fielding questions about the timing of the birth / marriage.
Just as she’s just getting used to parenting, a bunch of “wise men” appear. “Wise Men” who give some fairly questionable gifts for a small child.
That kid still flipping drumming.
Wanting nappies as a gift… and getting myrrh.
Wondering if the smell was baby or animal.

I guess I’m thankful we didn’t have to put up with a little drummer boy when the small one was born.

Anything you would add to the above?

When I Went Searching For Santa

Posted on December 22, 2018 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

There seems to be a load of things people don’t mention about being a dad, as a result you don’t find out about them until you’re a Dad yourself, and you’re living the stuff that people don’t talk about. (Still with me?)

For example, the massively wide range of jobs you end up doing, jobs such as negotiator, monster hunter, or human transport device. (Aka carrying on your shoulders).

The other evening, a local charity had arranged for Santa to wonder the streets of Exeter. As a result, I found myself walking the streets to find Santa. (This was to ensure he walked the roads we were hoping he would).

I reached the end of the road where I expected to find them, and as the reality of the cold air kicked in, I wondered why on Earth I was doing this.

It’s hard to explain the emotions felt as Santa and his sleigh turned around the corner at this moment.

But I very much felt that I had “found Santa”.

Twist in the tail? When he passed our place, the small one didn’t want to speak / see / smile at him. But Santa did have a sleigh, and the sleigh did have plenty of lights on, which we had to follow that around until we agreed to wave “bye”.

Obviously. Following the sleigh was all done on my shoulders…

That terrible picture above? If you look really closely, you may indeed also see Santa.

Carnival Games! A Nintendo Switch Review.

Posted on December 8, 2018 by DevonDad Geek Stuff Parenting Life Parenting Survival Guide 0

Welcome to winter. The time of the year when nights draw in, weather gets worse, and… well… colour wise it all gets a bit dull outside. Bursting through the winter colours, comes Carnival Games on the Nintendo Switch. (Quick disclaimer – whilst the game was free, all the opinions are my own)

Carnival Games is mostly Nintendo through and through. If you think back to the games that made the Nintendo Wii great, the party games that got people standing up and joining in? The classics like Wii Sports and Wii Fit? Carnival Games tries to fill the void left by those games on the Nintendo Switch.

Based around the idea of an American style carnival, you’re presented with a couple of minigames based around different styled worlds, Jungle, Space, Western, and errr…. Steampunk? Some of the games work better in their themes then others. For example the scifi style race game, could only ever work in the space series of games, but “Cosmic Bowling” could have fitted in anywhere really.

With that in mind, the “Cosmic Bowling” minigame is additive mini gaming at its best. Simple, and quick. Like how its meant to be.

Thinking about the game, I do wonder if theres something about a Carnival that gets lost in translation to a English Audience? Basically the more you play, the more tickets you get – the more games you can unlock. Which, I believe is very “carnival like”, but, Yes. The more fun games are there to be unlocked. It feels that Carnival Games could have been better served by giving more up front, by giving all the games, and motion controls up front.

Perhaps make us work at the games to unlock harder levels or something, but don’t make me work at getting to the fun stuff. Please? I feel there is a massively fun game here underneath the need to unlock it all. It feels like its the sort of thing that a game update could very easily fix.

The good news is that the small one enjoyed watching me play, and cheered on my gaming efforts. Which is always nice.

Perhaps though, I’m not the suited age range for this? Perhaps if you have a couple of kids who get the carnival thing better than I do, I can imagine it being a fab purchase.

“Is it always like this??”

Posted on December 5, 2018 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

Love this guys comics…

A Parenting Prayer at This Time of Year

Posted on November 7, 2018 by DevonDad Parenting Life Parenting Survival Guide 1

Might be based on a true story…

Keeping Kids Entertained During The Holidays

Posted on October 21, 2018 by DevonDad Parenting Life 2

Welcome to the school holidays! If you don’t have kids, this probably means an easier journey to work, if you do this probably means you, or someone else needs to come up with ways to stop the little darlings from watching nothing but Cbeebies all day long.

But what can be done to entertain kids throughout the school holidays? Well here are a few ideas to help*.

Here is our list of ways to keeping kids entertained during the school holidays…

1. Compile a list of all the local holiday clubs. GET TO ALL OF THEM.
2. Picnics! AKA Uncomfortable meals surrounded by bugs!
3. Run a marble run all over your house. When it goes wrong – remember – never again watch that episode of Topsy and Tim where Joyce managed to set it up ok.
4. Run a treasure hunt around your local supermarket. AKA Do the shopping.
5. Take all your toilet rolls and create a 1:1 scale model of the Eiffel Tower.
6. Go on a quest. To the local family friendly pub.
7. Bribe the kids into helping declutter the house (Good luck)..
8. Explore the local park. No matter what the weather!
9. Breakout that craft box. See how much glitter stays on the paper (that you’ve laid out to catch it), versus the amount that gets spread all over the bleddin floor.
10. When all else fails. Cbeebies. Thank you CBeebies, for being you. (Not you Bing)