Online Safety for Schools Online Safety Magazine for Schools | Page 25

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Remember: All these Challenges are Filmed and uploaded / posted to social media on Mobile Phones,
usually You Tube, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook. As many videos exist, this can reinforce the validation
for attempting and completing the challenge.
The Blue Whale Challenge is a social media challenge that encourages children, teenagers & other users
to perform specific tasks, over the course of 50 days, that are assigned to them by an anonymous “group
administrator.” Some people say that the Blue Whale Challenge might be an urban
legend, but many parents and educators are concerned about this social media
challenge that is gaining attention online. Many of the tasks include acts of self-harm,
like urging players to cut themselves in the shape of a whale. Players join the Blue Whale
Challenge by posting certain hashtags or joining specific groups on social media, in the
hopes of getting selected by a “group administrator”. Targeted at 10-14-year olds,
players are required to send photo evidence to their “group administrator” to prove that they have
completed each specific task. The challenge is meant to harm students and slowly gets them to trust the
game. The Blue Whale Challenge creates new opportunities for predators to target victims on social
media. Players of the challenge can’t stop playing once they’ve started; they are blackmailed and cyber
bullied into completing the “game”. “Group administrators” are typically adults and older teens.
The Momo Challenge is similar to the Blue Whale Challenge, the Momo Challenge is popular amongst
teens and some young adults (10 – 16 year olds), however in many ways it is ‘age irrelevant’ as it preys on
the vulnerable and those with ‘low’ self-esteem, hence the similarity
to the Blue
Whale Challenge. The challenge encourages students to contact an
unknown
person called ‘Momo’ via Whats App. Throughout the challenge,
students
are sent violent and graphic images and texts. If students want to
stop the
challenge “Momo” threatens to leak their personal information.
Then, the
stranger asks students to share photos and videos of themselves completing certain tasks. At first the
tasks are small. For example: face a fear, wake up at weird hours throughout the night, then the tasks
escalate until the final task which encourages students to kill themselves. Images associated with “Momo”
are based off Japanese doll artists Linkfactory but the artists are in no way involved with the Momo
challenge. WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook are the primary networks for the challenge.
The Condom Snorting Challenge is not unlike other dangerous dares that have swept social media,
teenagers have been doing it - for years now. The challenge involves uncoiling a condom and stuffing it
up one side of your nose, then plugging the other nostril and inhaling until the long
piece of latex slides into your throat. Then what? You reach back and pull it from your
mouth. The condom could easily get stuck in your nose or your throat, blocking your
breathing or causing you to choke. The challenge is not only to do this once, but how
many times can one individual complete this task, and now many in a minute, different
challenges different dangers.
Tide Pod Challenge soon became real after circulating on social media - with multiple videos uploaded to
YouTube of people participating in the challenge. The uploaded videos
instantly get many views and soon became viral. Most videos open by
discussing the challenge, stating, “I didn’t think you could eat them, but
they
look so tasty,” before popping the detergent pod into the individuals
mouth.
Biting down, the pod oozes detergent, and the ‘YouTuber’ will immediately
attempt to spit it out. These videos, ‘many hundreds’, are both foolish and
disgusting - in addition to dangerous - and doctors are urging people to refrain from attempting the
challenge.