4chan’s
roots date back to a pre-Facebook age of the internet, where anonymity ruled
and rules were hard to come by. Hackers deposited nude celebrity photos on the
site over the summer. It’s also the birthplace of the hacker collective, “Anonymous”.
Launched in 2003, 4chan is an established imageboard website with 209 million visitors monthly and 900,000 new posts per day. But its anonymity and over-18 age limit means it is unsafe for teens to use 4chan, 8chan and their counter parts.
4chan is an imageboard website that is mostly used by young males. Official demographics state that the most popular age group are those between 18 and 25.
However, there are multiple personal stories online of teens who use 4chan.
It was originally created as an answer to Japan’s 2chan and used to discuss anime
However, it now has boards ranging from video gaming to adult content that is easily accessible by all visitors to the site. 4chan is also a source for many internet memes as well as political movements, hacktivism and cyber attacks.
As a result, it has been at the centre of many controversies in the media and may impact your teen’s online safety.
A collective view of 4Chan by the internet is it’s notorious for squeamish content and from where most hacks/ hackers originate from. Child porn has been posted on 4Chan several times.
4Chan has been linked to several attacks and terrorist attacks, such as the incident on the ninth of march 2019, Brenton Tarrant massacred fifty-one people during Friday prayers at Al Noor mosque and the Linwood Islamic centre in Christchurch.
Brenton Tarrant conspired his attacks with others through hate speech on 4Chan. Many incidents as such have occurred as 4Chan users tend to post racist ideologies on the forum, scheming with one another until someone goes and does it.
After his arrest, Tarrant explained to investigators that he
frequented 4chan for “right wing discussion boards”. He announced his attack on
4chan and also live streamed himself during the shooting.
Another unfortunate attack in which was up for 4Chan’s users to see, was that of Amber Coplin. According to court documents filed on November 5th, 2014, there were images posted to 4Chan that appeared to be that of a murder victim.
The body was discovered in port orchard, Washington, after the images were
posted on 4Chan. “Turns out it’s way harder to strangle someone to death than
it looks on the movies.” Was what David Kalac had to say under his post. Many
call it the 4Chan murder.
Many users on 4 Chan notoriously “troll” others, it’s anything but light hearted. Many people have harmed themselves due to posts on 4 Chan. For example, the #CuttingForBieber trend, where a user doctored images of self harm imagery and posted it under the caption #CuttingForBieber over the latest news of Bieber. Fans saw this and cut themselves and posted it to “join the movement”.
The website has very little pros, mainly consisting of cons to its existence. Stereotypically, 4Chan users are painted to be grotesque and rude by a vast majority. A lot of 4Channers tend to be bullied by their peers and outcasted, hence turning to the internet and finding alike individuals. This is not healthy as they have a negative look of people and can be egged to conspire attacks as they have on the website so many times before.
Users on 4Chan have bullied younger individuals into dressing up as women and posting it on the website, potentially exposing them to paedophiles and destroying their life if used as blackmail.
