Parents nowadays install baby monitors to ensure that their little ones are safe and sound when they are alone in their crib.

However, what people didn't tell them is that they should avoid looking at them at night because they might just get a heart attack.

A spooky-looking picture of a baby taken with a night vision baby monitor has gone viral online, and it's easy to see why.

Here's the picture:

The picture shows the baby lying on his back in the cot, but a strange shadowing effect on the baby’s face -- together with a bright photographic flash effect on his eyes -- left the infant looking really scary.

'Bundle of demonic energy'

The amused and we're pretty sure slightly terrified parent uploaded the photo onto his Twitter account with the caption: “We got a new video baby monitor and I think that was a mistake.”

The tweet has so far been liked more than 408,000 times with 83,000 shares.

Twitter users were equally terrified after they chanced upon the photo, but they were also quick to offer some clever quips:

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Apparently a common thing

However, a couple of fellow parents came to the rescue, saying that the 'demon effect' is common on baby monitors.

Some of them even shared pictures of their demon babies:

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Thanks for the heads up, you guys, we won't be putting up any baby monitors any time soon.