The so-called Game Master has been highly popular among children and young people for a while now. He appears in videos and chain letters in WhatsApp. But who is behind the figure with mask?
A darkly dressed, masked stranger contacts YouTubers via WhatsApp or letter and gives them scary or dangerous tasks to solve. YouTubers show in their videos how they are seemingly helpless against this Game Masters. If the YouTuber does not fulfill the set task, he faces penalties. According to some YouTubers, the so-called Game Master contacts his “victims”, e.g. via social media or notes on the doorstep. In a case of YouTuber Rebekah Wing, it seems that the Game Master hacked into her videos and plays his video there. Only when Rebekah Wing completes a Game Master task will he release her channel. In some cases, the Game Master’s actions also cross borders. He allegedly shows up at the respective YouTuber’s home or breaks into it and destroys his property. In a video by YouTuber TwoBrokeBoys, the Game Master can be seen threatening one of them with a knife.
Have you ever seen a YouTube video featuring the supposed Game Master? Then you will have quickly noticed that the character and the story around it are made up. Presumably, a friend or acquaintance of the YouTuber put on dark clothes and a mask. The interaction between YouTuber and Game Master is played.
For children and young people, the staging of the Game Master is often still difficult to see through. The dangerous tasks of the Game Master are exciting for them and instill fear. As a rule, the scarier a video is, the more clicks on YouTube videos there are. It’s a bit of a challenge for kids to get up the nerve to watch a video like this.
Game Master videos – like other chain letters or the character Momo – are designed to spread fear and creepiness among young viewers. Talk to your child about what is behind the Game Master phenomenon and that such videos or chain letters cannot be real. For example, ask yourself together how you would react if an unknown person, unintentionally comes to your home and wants to harm them.
Agree with your child to talk to you if he or she receives creepy chain letters like Game Master’s. In addition, these should not be passed on, also to protect other children. To expose a chain letter as nonsense, it also helps to search for it online. There is info on almost every chain letter here. And last but not least, to avoid wasting any more energy on the unwanted message, simply delete it from your smartphone!
