Binay asks gov’t to take down ‘Momo Challenge’ app

Sen. Nancy Binay has called on concerned government agencies to take down a messaging app used in the deadly “Momo Challenge,” which has been blamed for a child’s death in the country recently.

The reelectionist senator also reminded parents to keep an eye on the apps and websites their children were using in their gadgets.

“I hope the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) can see if this can be taken down, wherever this (Momo Challenge) came from,” she said at a Senate forum on Thursday.

Binay expressed alarm at the fad challenge, which urges the user to take part in harmful dares by hounding them with disturbing images.

“My appeal as a parent is for us to check what our children are searching on their gadgets, and for us not to share these so it won’t become viral,” Binay said.

She said the effects of the deadly challenge were “alarming,” especially for her, a mother of 10-year-old twins.

“All of us are grasping at how [to] raise our kids in the time of technology,” she said.

She also called on the DICT and the social welfare and development and education departments to come up with seminars on how to guide children’s gadget use. —JULIE M. AURELIO

Read: Parents urged to keep kids off deadly Momo challenge, Blue Whale challenge