MOMO Has Me Watching Our Kids On The Web...But Who Is Watching Us?

I pretty much spent the entire week calming my little one down in the aftermath of what she saw on another kid’s phone in school. Don’t get me started on why another kid would have a phone in school…but I had to move forward and explain this entire MOMO disaster, why it went so viral, HOW it went so viral and also to remind her once again about the importance of digital awareness. EVERYTHING they text or search can be traced. This, to me as a mom is a majorly heavy topic for their little minds and keeps me up at night.

But the worst part of this “MOMO sensation” and what I came to realize three days in is that almost none of it was true. “Japanese statue” part…true but “youtube videos telling your kids to hurt themselves…not so true. Did we all as pissed off parents arm ourselves with the proper information or did we just start texting and sharing?? Even some popular celebs shared away with their enormous fan bases – just enlarging the ring of “who sees and shares” and making it worse and worse. I actually cannot believe the damage this did in 24-48 hours. And while I went crazy educating and consoling my child…have we looked really at how as adults all this sharing of unconfirmed nonsense made this what it is? That we are actually the reason these kids saw what they saw? We are truly in a “social media challenge” kind of world and I only hope our kids are somewhat smarter than we are. There I said it…I’m not as smart as I actually think I am. The punishment??? We are all putting our phones and tablets in a bowl and watching movies like its 1985. When none of this nonsense existed. And for the record…I used liquid detergent then and continue to now. No pods in this abode. LOL.