Police have issued a warning to parents about videos of a Huggy Wuggy bear which sings about killing.
Huggy Wuggy is a character on TikTok and YouTube and is being viewed by children across the country due to the clips getting through social media safety barriers due to their titles. However the reality of their contents is very distressing and the character is armed with sharp teeth and sings songs about hugging and killing, reports DorsetLive.
The videos are believed to be being viewed by children as young as five, according to Dorset Police, which is leading on the warnings about the clips. The killer teddy called 'Huggy Wuggy' is said to be prompting kids to act out the razor-toothed horror game character's actions in the playground, after videos slipped through YouTube and TikTok filters.
READ MORE: Man denies attempted murder of girl shot on way back from school
Dorset Police have shared a warning following reports that Year 1 pupils have been exposed to the terrifying clips, which sees the creature singing about "hugging and killing" and asking viewers to "take their last breath." The worrying trend has been branded the online equivalent of the "Killer Clown" craze, which swept across Britain several years ago.
Police forces have even issued warnings to parents, while schools have also stepped in to issue advice to mums and dads. A Dorset Police spokesperson warned: "The blue bear-like character has long arms and rows of razor sharp teeth.
"Set in an abandoned toy factory, Huggy is a villain in the game who stalks the players from vents are unreachable places. Videos of the game are available to watch on YouTube, with other clips dedicated to Huggy in songs.
"One song includes the lyrics 'I could hug you here forever, till you breathe your last breath together."
Chris Conroy, cyber protect officer for Dorset Police said: "There are videos people have made, songs people have made, and it's popping up all over YouTube and TikTok using this quite graphic imagery of this bear-like character with razor sharp teeth. It's based around jump scares and things you certainly wouldn't want children exposed to."
Huggy Wuggy is a character in a puzzle game which sees players attempt to escape their stalking villain in a toy factory. The game is available on platforms such as YouTube and Roblox and contains disturbing content that is unfiltered due to there being no age rating.
Mr Conroy added: "If you were to use even YouTube kids for example, it may slip through because there is nothing obviously sinister about the name of a video. It really comes down to paying attention of what your children are doing and making sure they are not just trusting YouTube Kids videos are safe because unfortunately with videos like this, things do slip through the cracks."
Police said some schools are seeing children recreate a game in the playground with hugging and whispering nasty things in the recipient's ear. A line in one Huggy Wuggy song reads: "I could hug you here forever, til you breathe your last breath together."
It adds: "My teeth sharp and ready, in my grasp, yeah they're deadly" while in another, the blue bear invites people to "lean in for a spine-breaking embrace".
Mum-of-two Rhia Fearn, 35, of Etwall, Derbyshire, said she was left shocked when her son Harrison, five, came home from school asking about the character. She said: "A couple of weeks ago he started to talk about Huggy Wuggy, which I innocently thought was a good character because of his name.
"I was asking him questions about whether he was a goodie, and Harrison was adamant 'no he's a baddie and he kills people'. That was really contradictory for me because I thought 'that can't be right - he's called Huggy Wuggy'.
"He said children at school had been talking about it and one of his friends has been watching it. This weekend we were out shopping and he spotted a boy with the teddy and he said 'that's Huggy Wuggy, look mummy.'
"It was my first glimpse of the physicality of Huggy Wuggy and that prompted me to ask a bit more about him. He told me Huggy Wuggy kills everyone he meets and he's not nice, he's a baddie and he's very mean.
"I believe it's accessible on Youtube and it's really frightening that this Huggy Wuggy has snuck in under my radar as a parent and infiltrated my child's mind without me even being aware. Now I feel really silly for not listening more intently to what my son was telling me and realising the violence this character portrays.
"Kids want to play the games of Huggy Wuggy, they are talking about it in the playground. It's really frightening as a lot of parents will be oblivious to this level of violence our children are being exposed to.
"We need help and awareness because it's scary how it goes under radar. I think I'm pretty conscious what I let Harrison get exposed to but when it happens in conversations in the playground, I think parents and schools need to be more vigilant."
