TV

Good Morning Britain viewers furious as Momo picture shown when children are watching

Show slammed for not issuing a warning

Furious parents have hit out at Good Morning Britain after the show shared an image of alleged internet meme Momo while children were getting ready to go to school.

Viewers complained that they were forced to switch off accusing the show of “traumatising their children” with the scary image and slamming them for not issuing a warning before broadcasting it.

youtube
The Momo challenge has been scaring children and adults. (Credit: YouTube)

Read more: Holly Willoughby expresses fears for her son over Momo challenge

Schools’ minister Nick Gibb was being interviewed by presenters Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway when they brought up the subject of Momo.

Momo is a terrifying image of a doll-like figure with bulging eyes and wide grin which had reportedly been seen on platforms such as YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook, targeting children by asking them to self-harm and commit violent acts.

Ben and Kate were interviewing Nick Gibb (Credit: ITV)

Read more: Mother claims three-year-old is Momo challenge’s youngest victim

One tweeted: “Had to swiftly turn over when #GMB started talking about theMomoChallenge ffs!! My child finally had a decent night’s sleep after all the scare mongering & then a breakfast show starts it all up again.”

Another commented: “No warning at all! Just watching #GMB whilst eating my porridge & up comes that MOMO face. I’d thought you’d have said an advisory message before putting it up!”


While a third added: “Absolutely furious with @GMB for helping to propagate this momo nonsense. V upset 6 year old saw the picture this morning. You are part of this problem and are traumatising children. Stop it. #gmb”

(Credit: PSNI.Craigavon Facebook)
While the image comes from model originally made for an art exhibition in Japan. (Credit: PSNI.Craigavon Facebook)

Read more: GMB viewers call for Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard to replace Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid permanently

The Momo meme is now thought to be a hoax. With You Tube releasing a statement yesterday which said: “Contrary to press reports, we’ve not received any recent evidence of videos showing or promoting the Momo challenge on YouTube.

“Content of this kind would be in violation of our policies and removed immediately.”

WhatsApp also responded to the rumours with a statement that read: “WhatsApp cares deeply about the safety of our users, it’s easy to block any phone number or encourage users to report any problematic messages to us so we can take action.

“We have a machine learning system in place that ban accounts based on abusive behaviour and user reports.”

Do you believe the Momo challenge is real? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor