BHUBANESWAR: In the wake of reports of suicide from across the country, Odisha Crime Branch (CB) on Saturday issued an advisory for the parents and guardians to protect the children from the Momo challenge online game.
The game having picture of a doll with scary features and large protruding eyes is being circulated through unknown WhatsApp numbers. It lures players into a series of violent acts including a suicide dare. Those monitoring the game check the status of users on social media and target the ones having suicidal tendencies.
The advisory has asked the citizens to avoid invitations from unknown WhatsApp numbers, delete messages having malicious links and block unknown persons who are asking to play the game.
Highlighting the signs and symptoms of victims falling prey to the deadly game, it appealed to the parents to keep a close watch on change in behaviour of children because of their online activities. The symptoms include avoiding friends and family, having bad moods and unhappiness, not carrying out day-to-day tasks, sudden outburst of anger and visible marks like deep cuts or wounds on the body.
Parents should be vigilant when children suddenly start spending more time on social media, changing the content on their devices on seeing guardians, getting withdrawn or angry after spending time on social media or sending text messages and having new phone numbers and mail IDs, it said.
The advisory also asked the teachers to inform parents of the children who are suspected to be playing the game, conduct random checks of students’ mobile phones and take necessary action if they are found to be playing the game. The challenge was reportedly first started on Facebook where people were asked for communicating with unknown persons via unknown numbers.
Meanwhile, family members of a 20-year-old boy S Chetan of Rourkela, who was pursuing engineering in Bhubaneswar, claimed that he committed suicide after playing the deadly game in Chennai recently. Chetan committed suicide by jumping off the sixth floor of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on August 22. Rourkela police said they have no information about why Chetan committed suicide.