A panic circulated in schools and online in early April
2022, but it was no April Fool’s Day prank. The fear was
over a thin, towering, cartoonish, fluffy blue figure with
a gaping maw and terrifying teeth named Huggy Wuggy.
As to what, exactly, the threat was, it depended on what version of the story you saw. Some said that the threat was merely scaring children (or misleading them into embracing a terrifying figure); others said that Huggy Wuggy encouraged children to kill each other, siblings, or their parents. One British school administrator, David Hegarty, posted a warning on social media:
It has been brought to my attention that a character named “Huggy Wuggy” is being viewed by our children online. … The character can be easily viewed on YouTube channels and is a teddy bear with razor-sharp teeth that sings worrying songs about hugging and killing. In one of the videos, the bear asks the viewer to take their last breath. It is a very deceiving character, as hugs should be seen as something kind and loving.
On April 7, the Sheriff’s Office in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, issued a warning “due to a series of videos surrounding … Huggy Wuggy. The warnings are due to the character’s initially child-friendly visuals, which very quickly turn nightmarish.”
Misinformation was rampant, and—as with many scares—there was a grain of truth to the rumors. Huggy Wuggy is a character in a 2021 horror video game called Poppy Playtime. But despite the concerns of parents and school officials, the character was never marketed, nor intended to appeal, to children. Poppy Playtime is not available on age-restricted platforms, though it’s true that Huggy Wuggy appeared on some media accessible to children, such as YouTube. However, that was user-generated content, not official content. Once a fictional character is released to the public, it becomes in a sense public domain—not legally but folklorically. Any figure—from Harry Potter to James Bond to Spock to Darth Vader—appears in everything from fan art to costumes to videos to slash fiction. Those concerned about Huggy Wuggy conflated the two, mistakenly thinking that the real-but-rare versions of the figure seen on kids’ platforms were placed there to harm kids.
Because the character was never intended for children, the concern that the character is “deceiving” is misguided at best. This taps into perennial parental fears about deceptive marketing, especially to children. However, the figure is patently frightening and unlikely to be mistaken for one of the Muppets. In its proper context—which is off limits to anyone under twelve—it’s clear what Huggy Wuggy is: a villainous target in a first-person shooter game. Most importantly, despite the hype and fear, there is no evidence that the character inspired any violent acts in homes or schoolyards around the world.
Many Skeptical Inquirer readers will recognize the Huggy Wuggy scare as the latest in a long line of internet-based moral panics, including the Blue Whale Game and the Momo Challenge (see “The Rise and Fall of the ‘Momo Challenge’ Online Suicide Game Conspiracy” in the May/June 2019 SI). The evidence for these threats is built largely on rumor and conjecture. It’s also part of a long tradition of paternal fear over seemingly innocuous kids games that allegedly have a sinister side, including trick-or-treating, Ouija boards, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Charlie Charlie Challenge (see Massimo Polidoro’s column in the November/December 2015 SI). Despite no credible threat posed by Huggy Wuggy—or to the presumed impressionable youth who watched content featuring it—police and parents predictably used it as teachable moment. Chief Inspector Joanne Gibson issued a statement:
I urge parents and guardians to continue to talk to their children and young people about being safe online, while also ensuring they are fully aware of what they are viewing. It’s important to make your child aware of online dangers and make sure they know they can speak to someone if anything or anyone online causes them concern or upsets them.