People are Scared for Their Lives... of Nothing
A moral panic occurs when a person's fear of something is exaggerated. The worry is much stronger than the possible negative effect that could occur. The person experiencing moral panic believes their life is at risk when it is not. These moral panics are often blown up through media such as momo and Dungeons and Dragons.
Momo is an example of a moral panic because the "challenge" escalated from a simple piece of artwork to a "killer". People were quick to believe that children were in danger, and the topic blew up Facebook feeds and news stories. Dungeons and Dragons had a similar situation. A correlation was made between the game and a missing boy based on the only fact that the boy seemed like the type of person who might enjoy D&D. People caught wind of this and all of a sudden the game was "linked" to the devil. There was no reason for people to think this, yet parents wanted their kids to stay away from the game, and people feared for the lives of those who enjoyed it.
I think the biggest problem with moral panics is that many parents today get so wrapped up in trying to control what their children consume. Also, humans tend to blame a large amount of problems on the event that is causing a moral panic. They don't realize that they're exaggerating actually how bad the situation is.
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