Police forces are issuing warnings to parents due to a series of videos surrounding Poppy Playtime character Huggy Wuggy. The warnings are due to the character’s initially child-friendly visuals, which very quickly turn nightmarish. A juxtaposition of child-friendly themes in a frightening setting is nothing new to the horror genre, and previous games like Five Nights At Freddy’s have set the stage for such terrifying excursions.
Poppy Playtime follows a former Playtime Co. employee as they revisit their ex-employer’s abandoned toy factory upon receiving a letter from the staff who were thought to have disappeared without a trace 10 years prior. During their visit, the player soon finds that the toys within the factory have consciousness and are vengeful because of the experiments Playtime Co. carried out on them. As is evident from this synopsis and the game’s age rating, Poppy Playtime is not child-friendly, but due to the nature of the game’s antagonists being toys – which Poppy Playtime fans can also buy real plushes of – and initially having child-friendly visages before unleashing their monstrous side, the uninitiated may not be any the wiser.
As a result a series of TikTok videos featuring Huggy Wuggy, the 10-foot tall stuffed blue bear who exposes a grinning mouth full of sharklike teeth whilst singing menacing songs, has gone viral and has become a point of controversy, as unsuspecting children have stumbled across the horror-based content when scrolling through the popular video app. As reported by Portsmouth News, this controversy has led to police forces issuing warnings to parents, with Chris Conroy, a cyber-protection officer for Dorset Police, informing parents of the content in the following statement: “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.”
Despite the controversy surrounding videos made using visuals from its game, developer MOB Games has not responded to or commented on the police warnings. The developer has, however, announced a second chapter in the series, titled Fly In The Web, due to the first chapter’s critical acclaim and success. Although plot details are mostly unknown, Fly In The Web does seem to revolve around a new character who was teased in the first chapter: the pink spider-like Mommy Long Legs, who much like Huggy Wuggy appears on the surface to be child-friendly and welcoming but will almost inevitably become nightmarish as the game goes on.
The Poppy Playtime series looks to have no intention of stopping any time soon, and due to its popularity, it is likely that more fan-made content featuring the series’ antagonists will be uploaded to social media platforms. Due to its horror-based visuals, parents will need to remain vigilant of their children’s viewing to prevent them from coming across this age-inappropriate content.
