With Cartoon Character ‘Goofy’, Criminals Try to Lead Children to Suicide

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “Let him play with me. Soon you’ll see him dead. Take care of your child or I’ll make him kill himself,” was the message Camille Vanini, a 36-year-old dentist, received from the profile chatting with her 10-year-old son. It was “Goofy.”

Since mid-June, the Civil Police began issuing alerts about profiles on social media identified as Jonatan Galindo, though featuring pictures that refer to the Disney character. The accounts were being used to send games and activities to children, with encouragement to self-mutilation and suicide.

This Brazilian family could be one of the first victims of this type of cyber crime in Brazil. The message exchange occurred in the early hours of Monday, June 29th. The boy, who has no social media, saw news on Camille’s cell phone about “Goofy”. Then, he searched for this type of profile and was eventually replied to by one, in English. Having already lived abroad, he speaks the language.

In the conversation, the person behind the fake account would allow ten minutes for the answers to be sent and demand that the boy continue chatting. However, he fell asleep and the next morning the dentist read the conversation.

“I confess I had no idea who the ”Goofy” was. My first reaction was to apologize. I told him that my son took my cell phone and that he shouldn’t be bothering people. The problem was when he said I was going to see my son dead,” says Camille about the threat.

“I was shaking from end to end. I work on social causes for children and I never imagined it would be happening in my home,” she says.

The boy explained that his intention was to arrest this character so that he would not be able to hurt other children. Now he can’t sleep at night and his mother was forced to seek psychological help for him.

“We don’t know how virtual or real this is. My son is scared,” says Camille, who denounced the Instagram account but was advised that the profile did not violate the social media’s rules of conduct.

“I had hoped it would be taken down, but that was not the case. Companies like Instagram need to take action against these psychopaths. Just as he chatted with my son, and I was lucky to realize it quickly, he may be chatting with other children,” he says.

A quick search on Facebook and Instagram uncovers dozens of profiles with the name Jonatan Galindo and the macabre image in reference to the Disney character, some of them have content in Portuguese.

Camille reported the profile to the Police District for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (DPCA). She also lodged a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.

In Brazil, inducing or instigating someone to commit suicide or self-mutilation is a crime and can lead to a sentence of between six months to six years in prison.

There are still concerns over the first reports of an account of this type. To date, it is known that the posts started in 2017, in Europe or Mexico, in Spanish.

“This profile challenges users to send a private message and, in reply, it begins by sending videos, texts, audios and even connecting through live video. These messages cause discomfort, fear, terror and can even encourage suicide,” explains Civil Police Delegate Fernanda Lima.

This is not the first time that threats of this nature have triggered an alert among parents. They have a similar pattern: they are a sort of “chain” with an unknown source, focused on children and adolescents, and that multiply in several fake profiles, which would emulate the actions of the alleged attacker.

The “Blue Whale” challenge in 2017 emerged in a Russian social network, which viralized among youths and was associated with a wave of suicides by children and adolescents.

Around here, the game was on WhatsApp. The so-called “admins” proposed a number of challenges involving self-mutilation and acts of violence, with suicide being the final stage – threats to family and loved ones were made to force the completion of tasks within a set time.

Last year, the Momo Doll came back to haunt families. The disturbing picture was purportedly featured in Youtube Kids videos teaching children how to kill themselves. There were worldwide reports of content inciting self-mutilation and even traps to steal personal and financial data around the world.

When questioned, Instagram and Facebook failed to comment on why such profiles were not taken down.