Case study 2. Game ‘Momo’
In August 2018 it was reported that a new game ‘Momo’ surfaced on the internet. ‘Momo’s avatar image depicts Japanese artist Keisuke Aisawa’s work ‘Mother-bird’. Momo’s players were first contacted via Facebook and later by Whatsapp. Suicide of a 12 year-old girl and 16-year-old boy from Colombia were linked to the game. The police seized a video from the girl’s cell phone showing her preparations for the suicide. Game ‘Momo’ is linked to another suicide by an Indian boy named Manish Sarki. The police is withholding details of this and other suicide cases, however various sources tell that children’s suicides were caused by violent images and mystical messages containing a curse that were discovered in the victims’ Whatsapp. It appears that these children were addicted to online games. According to Manish Sarki’s mother, lately the child was hiding cell phone from his friends and parents to prevent them from seeing his images or messages. One of his teachers claims to have known that other students were playing “Momo’ too but they quit the game timely.