Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 3-5-19

Editorial/Column
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f anyone ever wondered
about the level of danger the internet could impose on children they wouldn't have to look any further than what has been occurring recently with the MoMo Challenge. The super creepy game, found on the WhatsApp web- site, has been linked to the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in Escobar, Argentina, and is being held responsible for causing serious injury to nu- merous other children across the globe.
The game, that uses Japanese artist Midori Hayashi's haunting image of a severely disfigured woman's face, begins by dar- ing children to embark on various missions that be- come increasingly more haz- ardous with each instruction. Once a child completes all of the dares the controllers be- hind the game, playing on the fragile psyche of adoles- cents, encourage the player to kill him or herself by in- sisting that their death will allow them to go to a place where they will be more loved and appreciated.
What makes the game even more bizarre is that, ac- cording to some of the vic- tims, the MoMo character has been known to send vio- lent images to the user's phone as well as make threatening phone calls. The voice on the phone tells those who take the challenge that, if their tasks are not com-
pleted, their families will be visited and tortured.
Needless to say, the chil- dren become so terrified that they continue following the orders they are given until they bring harm upon them- selves.
The really disturbing part ofitallisthat,asofnow,no one seems to know who or what is behind this viral menace. Speculation as to the source of the phenome- non ranges from extremely sick-minded hackers to rouge robots infused with advanced artificial intelli- gence to something far more supernatural and insidious in nature.
As strange as MoMo ap- pears to be though, the real- ity is that, its macabre madness isn't anything new. Not too long ago other inter- net ghouls such as The Slenderman and The Blue Whale also made headlines for causing young people to engage in self-de- structive behavior.
Slenderman gained worldwide recognition in 2014 after two 13-year-old girls attempted to murder their 12-year-old classmate and told police that they did so because they wanted to be allowed to enter the entity's mansion.
A year later, The Blue Whale challenge also be- came a part of the public consciousness when 130 chil- dren in Russia committed
suicide after only playing the game for 50 days.
MoMo, along with an- other diabolical character that was recently discovered teaching children how to properly slit their wrists in- side of a children's video on You Tube, seems to be just the latest incarnation of the same type of evil.
Without a way of remov- ing MoMo from the web, authorities are urging par- ents to become more aware of the kinds of things their kids are interacting with on- line and insist that avoiding contact with MoMo, on any social media site, is the best way to keep their children safe.
Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the sad state of the world we inhabit. The irony is that while most of us have done our best to live lives that will spare us from going to a place where we'll have to experience a harsh and cruel afterlife, with the amount of wicked- ness we're forced to contend with on a daily basis includ- ing mass shootings, rampant pedophilia and now internet demons, it appears as though the Hell we fear encounter- ing is coming our way in- stead.
The one good thing is
that, though we may not be
able to stop the next mad-
man with a gun or catch
every creep before he or she
kidnaps a child, when it
comes to stopping something
like MoMo, we have the ul-
timate control. All it takes is
the strength and will power
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbarronice@- gmail.com.
Beware Of MoMo
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Satire: ‘The Wall’
he year is 2028. American cities of El Paso,
Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville, Texas have become mega cities for major tourist destinations for Americans and foreign tourists. Moreover, Arizona, Baja, California, and New Mexico cities on the Mexico border have seen their tourist industry triple. Hotels and restaurants along the border have grown and re- port their profit margins have gone through the roof. Tourists flock to these cities because of their desire to see the Trump Wall, now a national monument.
By the time the wall was finished, the wall had cost the American taxpayers over $9 billion. One of the main attractions at the wall is the hundreds of secret tunnels found under the wall. For a fee of $50 ($25 for children) tourists pay for two-hour guided tours along the wall, which points out many of the tunnels along the wall. Before the wall was built, in 2018, at least 220 elaborate tunnels had been discovered. Now, tourist guides point out the many more shallow tunnels that have been found along the wall, 600 to be exact.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) had to be installed and detection reading staff were hired all along the border and cost taxpayers at least an additional three billion dollars. Called the Rapid Reaction Radar, the entire border is patrolled every day to detect new tun- nels. The system detects underground voids created by tunnels as well as electrical cable or other devices in the tunnels. There have been reports that thieves are stealing some of GPR antennas costing millions of dol- lars each year. The GPR system can cost in the range of $20 to $60 per kilometer (.621 mile, nearly $30,000 to $108,000 per mile), depending on factors such as con- dition, location, depth to which the detection is to take place and the volume of work.
Autographed pictures of President Trump can be purchased for $25 each all along the border and at the end of guided tours. The steel industry, concrete indus- tries, the tourist industry and GPR makers appear to be the only ones benefiting from the 1,954 mile wall. (If it were only true, this argument would make more sense than what we’re being handed now.).
to simply disconnect.
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