Today’s children get access to any information on the Internet too early. While this can be helpful in finding and absorbing educational and developmental content, they are easily swayed by rogue actors. Besides, kids are especially interested in content not intended for their age. Of course, you cannot personally control what your child is doing 24/7 – there are online monitoring tools like uMobix for this. So, if you are wondering, “What is creepypasta?” maybe it’s been your sign to delve deeper into this topic.
Where Did the Name “Creepypasta” Come from?
Human creativity has always been expressed in a multi-faceted way and appealed to people’s minds in their specific periods of life and moods. Laughter, tears, and horror – these sentiments have always found a special response among people, seeing the forms of creativity being changed depending on a particular era. Since the advent of the Internet, content sharing has become superfast and more accessible, including for the underage. It is difficult to predict what exactly will cause a great resonance in the network, as it was with the creepypasta.
Although no one knows who’s the OG of creating virtual horror content, the term “creepypasta” was coined in the mid-2000s and first spotted on the 4chan website. Taking advantage of the internet network effect, creepypastas, or fan fiction for horror, started to spread like wildfire; they are free and can be shared, for example, via instant messengers via the copy-paste option (hence the name: creepy and copypasta).
What Is Creepypasta?
Creepypasta is essentially a short, gory story that tickles the nerves with its mystical or supernatural interweaving into the plot. The format of these stories, namely their conciseness and brevity, allow the narrative to capture the attention of both the grown-ups and the younger readers.
Back in the day, legends about the restless souls wandering the world in search of retribution and victims have been passed on for decades or even centuries by word of mouth, which formed the basis of urban legends. Since modern humanity is more and more inclined to communicate online, horror stories have gradually moved to the Internet domain, and they can often be found on various forums and social networks, and, accordingly, it’s easy to share them with others.
Creepypasta websites are easy to find and browse for anyone who knows how to use the Internet, hence the concerns of parents worried about their children’s psyche. It should be emphasized that creepypasta includes not only text but also other content like audio or video, images, etc. Although the improbability of such stories is easy to ascertain for an adult who may perceive them as fun, it can be difficult for more receptive people and children to shake off the feeling of anxiety and fear after reading scary stories.
Genres of Creepypasta
Keeping you on your toes, the simplicity of sharing spooky stories in one click online – these features have won this genre, which is also called the “Internet folklore genre,” immense popularity. What adds to the compelling nature of creepypasta, among other things, is the wealth of sub-genres and thematic offshoots.
Lost Episodes
This sub-genre of creepypasta can be especially spooky in that directors indeed shoot episode(s) that, for some reason, are not included in the series – for fear that they will turn out to be too dark and not well received by the general public. True connoisseurs are happy to rummage through the Internet looking for this kind of content, which, due to its unacceptability for many, is a real diamond for a small handful of viewers. Some believe that the real reason why such episodes were filmed is more gruesome than one can imagine, and the fate of those who find and view them remains very bleak.
Cursed Games and Videos
You might think some things are better left behind a few locks. But hundreds of curious Internet users looking for thrills will not agree with you. Hence, the popularity of stories about people into whose hands, by coincidence, a video cassette or a video game falls that initially beckons the (already suspecting) person, promising a unique experience, but then turns out to be cursed, harming the person’s environment and driving them crazy.
Madmen and Killers
It’s easy to see how some of these stories resonate with real-world teen issues: peer humiliation, lack of understanding on the part of parents, academic problems, and dissatisfaction with their looks – all of which take on a new twist in the creepypasta world when, unable to take the bullying anymore, the teen becomes a homicidal psychopath. Some stories take advantage of existing criminals and give them more demonic powers, instilling a sense of hopelessness in the trembling reader on the other side of the screen.
Supernatural Creatures
Monsters crawling out from under the bed? Yes, please. Demons, awake for centuries? Certainly. Ghost stories about haunted houses, generations, and now the main character? With pleasure! Any entity with a malicious intent to unravel as the story progresses makes the reader’s blood run cold. Taking their roots from myths, folklore, and legends, these creatures don’t seem to be disappearing from scary stories – one can only hope they stay there.
Rites and Spiritual Practices
The main characters of ritual creepypasta are enthusiastic about any attempt to re-establish contact with the dead – and usually pay the price for their audacity. In addition, various instructions are circulating on the network on how to summon this or that creature and intimidating messages about what will happen after (marked “NEVER try yourself” – yeah, of course). In short, no more talking with the mirror and crawling into the closet mumbling outlandish things – who knows who you can summon!
Dangers of Creepypasta for Teens
The allure of creepypasta may look absurd to adults and even some kids and teens, while others may feel detached from reality and find it difficult to cope with the growing fear, sweaty palms, and intrusive thoughts after reading or watching this kind of content. They don’t know what might scare them until they encounter such content.
While younger children are just afraid of various monsters hiding in the dark and so on, there is a kind of psychological creepypasta that deliberately makes teenagers do terrible things. Many of you have probably heard of such terrible Internet phenomena as MOMO or the Blue Whale, both of which encouraged young people to commit self-harm or suicide. That is why it is so important for parents, in whatever form, to be aware of their offspring’s interests and to see what kind of content they are interacting with.
Top 5 Most Terrifying Creepypasta
Ready to tickle your nerves? These are some of the most popular and creepy stories circulating on the Internet.
The Legend of Slenderman
The Slenderman character, which has gained considerable popularity and is especially scary for children who are afraid to fall asleep, was actually created not so long ago – by a forum user in 2009. Slenderman’s favorite approaches are playing with the victim’s mind, long stalking, although its ultimate goal revolves around stealing children. Particularly frightening in the appearance of Slenderman is its too-thin figure with tentacles appearing from behind its back and a distorted face. Slenderman can quickly overtake a victim and does not always play with them – sometimes, they face cruel reprisals quickly.
Ted the Caver
This horror story started in 2001; a young man named Ted talked about how he and his friends explored a cave near their residence in a then-nascent blog post format. After each visit, Ted shared his impressions, which became more and more imbued with horror and suspicion of the intervention of otherworldly forces in the friends’ sorties. Mysterious hieroglyphs and noises kept readers on their toes until Ted abruptly stopped blogging one day.
Suicidemouse.avi (Lost Episode)
The title refers to a supposedly existing film depicting a Mickey Mouse character, aka Suicide Mouse, monotonously moving in circles around buildings. Towards the end of the video, Mickey moves more erratically, disturbing music and strange sounds appear in the background, while the end of the film, according to some forum guests, forces the viewer to lose control. Like many other titles supposedly made never to reach the common viewer’s eye, Suicidemouse.avi is nowhere to be found on the internet.
Candle Cove
This story, created by cartoonist Kris Straub, tells about a group of people who took to online forums to discuss their gruesome experiences as children watching a cartoon. The cartoon’s plot revolves around the journey of a girl with pirate dolls and their encounters with different gore characters. Returning to the people who discuss the cartoon on the forum, it turns out that the cartoon does not exist – they were all looking at a static signal.
Jeff, the Killer
Being attacked by teenagers and set on fire, Jeff fights back against the bullies and realizes that he likes to inflict pain. Seeing his face disfigured from the fire, he loses his mind and becomes a serial killer. The infamous expression “Go to sleep” belongs to Jeff, who says it to his younger brother, who wakes up to see Jeff enraged. The Jeff the Killer character is used to intimidate those who can’t sleep for a long time at night.
Why Is It Popular Among Kids?
As a matter of fact, we are all amazed and worried that the modern generation masters technology so easily and can no longer live without it. As easy as it is for kids to search the web and swipe on their smartphones, that doesn’t mean they can keep themselves from being badly exposed to violent or overly graphic content. Forbidden fruit is sweet, and creepypasta is just another front on which parents of immature children need to be on the defensive until the child becomes more aware and understands what is real and what is fiction.
Tips for Parents on Creepypasta
When tackling topics associated with certain risks, such as creepypasta, it is necessary to establish how passionate the child is about the topic. Every child is inquisitive in their own right, so trying to hide certain topics or forbid talking about them can backfire. If you want to get the most out of your parental controls, here are some tips to help you:
- Watch your child’s mood changes and changes in their habits. Try to explain that you are their trusted friend; they can always talk to you without judgment if something bothers them.
- Introduce rules for using gadgets from an early age, offering replacements in the form of physical activity, walks, and live communication.
- Try to look modern and accessible in your child’s eyes so they can discuss current trends with you.
- Depending on the situation, discuss the use of a monitoring app for their safety; use a solution that won’t bother or annoy them.
Should You Ban Your Kids from Creepypasta?
What is creepypasta in a nutshell? It’s chilling, sometimes deeply disturbing content that embraces topics such as death, murder, self-harm, etc. It goes without saying that creepypasta is certainly not the fairy-tale story you want to read your child before bedtime, as even most adults find it unhealthy and irrelevant to interact with. Therefore, you might want to keep your child, especially too young of age or overly sensitive, away from creepypasta.
Also, some teenagers may be addicted to dark memes, which usually do not pose any particular danger, but still, it is better to keep such things under control with the help of uMobix.
What Can uMobix Do?
uMobix is a service that, after linking to the device of the user whose actions you want to monitor, keeps track of their communications (messengers, SMS), calls, and location and, in the context of online Internet usage, allows you to block certain websites, view browser history, check bookmarks, among other things. If you are worried that your child might be getting too carried away with creepypasta or any other harmful content, uMobix will quickly help you find out about it – with just a few clicks from your account.
Conclusion
The availability of various content types from which you can choose something to your liking, and completely free of charge, is one of the biggest advantages of the global Internet. However, such accessibility rather caters to the needs of adults who are able to determine what is good and what is bad, while the lack of comprehensive mechanisms for protecting and filtering content for children remains a pending issue that falls on the shoulders of parents.
Even with a child in your field of vision, it will be difficult for you to control and limit their pastime and online content consumption, not to mention the fact that being surrounded by peers, they have the freedom to see into whatever they want, without being aware of how it could harm them. Using a modern and working tool for monitoring and managing children’s gadgets like uMobix, parents can amend their children’s behavior on the Internet and help them form a healthy worldview without being influenced by content that is inappropriate for their age.
