Parents across the UK have been freaking out their kids by warning them about a viral internet challenge that probably isn't real.

Those who have posted warnings about the challenge - including school boards and police forces - say that the "game" encourages young children to hurt themselves or face dire consequences.

But it's unclear if anyone has ever actually hurt themselves after watching the video, which features a creepy song and an image of a demented looking girl.

It's more likely the entire thing is a hoax that is creating a feedback loop based on fake news and given credibility by officials and news agencies (including STV News) who were just trying to do the right thing.

Rona Dougall spoke with Amelia Tate - a journalist who specialises in online phenomenon - on Scotland Tonight. This is an edited transcript of their conversation.

RD: What is the Momo challenge and why has it got so much attention?

AT: Momo is an alleged form of cyber-bullying. It started allegedly on WhatsApp last year where an anonymous number would send messages threatening children.

And it was associated with this creepy Momo character, this bulging-eyed girl. Allegedly there were some suicides in Mexico and Colombia caused by these threatening messages.

However, there's no evidence of this, no authorities have linked any deaths to the challenge.

This week it's sort of come to the UK, in a sense that parents have heard about it, and become very frightened about it.

There are rumours that Momo is popping up on YouTube, however, YouTube has denied this and has no evidence of it.

So how has this picked up so much traction?

[In the UK] it all started from a Facebook comment from a mum in Bolton, saying that her son had looked up Momo online and scared a few other kids.

What this did was cause panic among parents who started to look it up they started to show it to their children, scaring their children.

Because the children were scared, schools started responding, and then the tabloids picked up on these comments without verifying them, which led to police commentary last weekend issuing a warning about it.

So it's been legitimised, these random rumours have been legitimised by school and police. And that in turn has been damaging to parents because lots of people are anxious about it.

More children have been exposed now to Momo than they ever would have been.

I imagine nobody would have been exposed to it in the UK. Parents are getting the image up on their phones and saying to the child 'have you seen this?', children are crying, screaming and they're hysterical.

They believe it's a threat but they have been exposed to it by their own parents and their schools.