A Twitter craze claiming to summon the spirit of a Mexican demon named ‘Charlie’ appears to be taking off in Maltese schools, raising concerns that the game may be more than harmless fun.
The so-called Charlie Charlie Challenge, reminiscent of the Ouija board, involves placing two pencils on a sheet of paper in the form of a cross and writing the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in the squares formed by the pencils. Participants then ask ‘Charlie’ a series of yes or no questions, with the movement of the pencils supposedly indicating the demon’s response.
There have been more than two million tweets using the hashtag #CharlieCharlieChallenge in the last few days, with teenagers worldwide also sharing videos of their experiences on Instagram and Vine.
There are, however, suspicions that the game may have been part of a viral marketing campaign for a new horror film, The Gallows.
Although the movement of the pencils is nothing more than gravity in action, the game’s supernatural trappings have apparently raised concern, with one Catholic bishop in the US sending a letter to students advising them that “there is no such thing as innocently playing with demons”.
On social media, a Maltese secondary school teacher said she had to spend half an hour calming students down after they became scared while attempting the game in class.
Attempts to contact ‘Charlie’ through the medium of the game proved unsuccessful
A mother of two teenagers shared text messages between her children claiming to be unable to sleep out of fear of Charlie. Another parent said children at his daughter’s school were teased if Charlie did not ‘allow’ them to stop playing, another aspect of the challenge.
Bro. Saviour Gatt, a psychotherapist and educator, warned that any game that caused fear in children could not be dismissed as purely innocent and suggested it might lead to bad dreams or sleeplessness.
“Some youths might be enticed to experiment for excitement or out of boredom but can easily be hooked to what looks or sounds scary,” he said of the game’s reach. “They often boast among friends to appear trendy or bully some to encourage them to join in.”
Child psychologist Denise Borg played down fears surrounding the game, however, which she said was probably tame compared to what young children were exposed to in other media.
“A game created by children for children is generally something that a child’s mind can handle and process. It’s the multimedia exposure which is more likely to be an issue,” she said.
“Children who have been scared by the game may have had other experiences or were processing other fears.
“One cannot directly link one issue with another only through some experiences.”
Attempts by this newsroom to contact Charlie through the medium of the game proved unsuccessful.