It started at night, when YouTuber AL3XEITOR uploaded a creepy new video for his audience of nearly 1 million subscribers.
In the video, the creator holds up his mobile phone to the camera, and shows an image of a half-woman half-bird creature displayed on the screen.
The YouTuber claims he is trying to contact this being.
With this video raking up many viewers, it quickly became viral. Since then, other popular YouTubers started creating and sharing their own videos about this particular creature.
This was the time "Momo" was born. The monster with long black hair and a distorted face is being spread throughout the internet, to haunt those that are seeing it.
Stories started to spread.
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It the mythology surrounding Momo, there are numerous anonymous WhatsApp numbers allegedly floating around the internet, as well as on social media networks. They spread dare challenges to anyone who comes across the creature and make contact.
If someone accepts the "Momo Challenge," the person will be "greeted" by this monster, with it sending threatening messages, often in the form of challenges, which finally culminates in Momo daring that person to commit suicide.
In short, this "Momo Challenge" is a form of cyberbullying targeting children and adolescents.
For years in one way or another, Momo reportedly surface at times on different apps and then hide for a few months when the hype began, before again reemerging on a different social media service.
Momo-related challenges were later found on Instagram, on innocent-looking YouTube children videos, and even in the popular game Minecraft as a result of unofficial mods created by the game's users.
Because of it becoming viral, Momo is reported to be linked to panics in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and parts of the United States and Europe..
The problem about Momo is that, there is lack of hard evidence linking the Momo Challenge to specific actions or videos. This has led many people to assert that it’s a viral hoax or internet legend.
While it was claimed that the phenomenon has reached worldwide as of July 2018, the number of actual reports is relatively small.
Although authorities have not confirmed any direct "physical harm" caused by this challenge, the authorities and school administrations in many countries have issued warning, as they repeated common advise for internet safety, especially for parents to watch out for the messages and to keep their children far away from the Momo Challenge.
WhatsApp has also encouraged users to block phone numbers engaging in this practice and to report them to the company.
Even celebrities like Kim Kardashian has warned parents to monitor what their children are watching. She also specifically asked YouTube for help.
The Momo figure was later revealed to be an ubume created by Keisuke Aisawa at special effects firm Link Factory. This creepy woman’s face and chest was originally called "Mother Bird", and put on top of a pair of bird legs, displayed at Tokyo’s Vanilla Factory in 2016.
It was first put online on a Japan-based Instagram account who posted the picture in August 2016.
With its bulging eyes and huge beak-like mouth showing a horrifying emblazoned smile, the sculpture can be considered disturbing.
Similar: "Blue Whale Challenge" Phenomenon