Momo Youtube fears grow as 5-year-old girl reportedly cuts off her hair via orders of ‘suicide game’ avatar

Another young child has reportedly encountered the terrifying Momo character on YouTube, following multiple reports that the terrifying “suicide game” has infiltrated YouTube channels geared to children despite parental controls.

The Momo app is built around an avatar that originated in Japan, and reportedly issues dangerous challenges to its users after enticing them to communicate on WhatsApp, in some case reportedly threatening the user with violence against family members if they do not complete the required tasks. Multiple suicides around the globe have been tied to the Momo challenge.

According to the DailyMail, a salon owner in Gloucestershire, England, posted on Facebook about a little girl who had come into her salon after chopping off her own hair –– apparently, at the direction of the Momo challenge. The post reportedly reads, in part:

“So I’ve just had a beautiful little girl in affected by this sick MOMO challenge!! If you are unaware this sick human/mutant is hacking into peppa pig, fortnight, minecraft etc. … Any & most children’s YouTube videos, telling them to cut there hair off, hold Knives up to there throat, set themselves on fire & that it will suck all the blood from there body … this little girl is off to the doctors after her new haircut [sic].”

The salon owner reportedly said that the girl had hacked off some of her shoulder-length hair and that a hairstylist gave the little girl a pixie cut, which the girl reportedly said she liked — but she couldn’t promise that she would be able to ignore the Momo character in the future.

“Her mother is pretty traumatised & turning the internet off for now. She has asked me to make everyone aware of this sick sick challenge & what it is doing to our babys [sic] !!!,” the salon owner reportedly wrote.

Most recently, parents in Scotland and in New Orleans have claimed that their children encountered the Momo app while on YouTube or YouTube Kids.