Gaurav Rathore
His write-ups blend creativity, personal experience, and tailored technical advice, meeting reader needs effectively.
Have you ever heard about 4chan? I can’t think of a befitting introduction, but can surely tell you that this website has received a lot of attention lately, mostly for controversial reasons.
If you’re unaware of this spooky website, I suggest not digging deeper into it. However, if you’re doubtful that your child is spending considerate time on 4chan, read this blog further to know if you need to be concerned or not.
what is 4chan?
— Guru d🍀n (@javoruswillwin) October 30, 2022
Quick Answer: 4chan is an anonymous message board website where you can post images instead of texts and start a discussion thread. The website is infamous for the graphic content its users normally post.
According to the definition mentioned on the website:
“4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images.”
However, exploring a bit more about this simple yet bizarre site, you’ll come across a lot of disturbing content. From private parts of the body to obscene imagery, you’ll find all sorts of content that is not for children.
Launched in 2003, the website has been showing a disclaimer that states it is not suitable for children.
As you can see the Accept button, there’s no verification if you’re an adult or not. So, if any curious young minds decide to explore this site, they can easily get access to the content that they must not watch.
It has been cleared that 4chan is an adult website. The moment you open the URL, you’ll come across a list with definitive categories. For example, Interests consist of Comics & Cartoons, Weapons, Extreme Sports, Professional Wrestling, Science & Math, and more.
As you click on any of these, the ‘Disclaimer’ I mentioned in the previous section will pop up on the screen. Now, as you proceed, click on ‘Start a New Thread.’
Upload an image of your choice, staying anonymous or writing your name. Then, the other users will start replying to the original post. As the users can stay anonymous, getting weird or graphic images in replies is obvious.
However, there are a few site rules that must not be broken; otherwise, it will result in an account ban.
4chan is often used by youngsters, which mostly includes college students. The users seem to have a keen interest in Japanese culture, comics, video games, and tech-related stuff.
Moreover, the site is a great source for memes and trendy internet culture. Despite several warnings and set rules, 4 chan is infamous for its cyberbullying incidents and severe internet pranks over the past few years.
Apart from this, some people love to have anonymous discussions here on topics that would be taboo anywhere else.
It’s not like the website only posts uncomfortable content; you can use it for some funny threads like LOLCats, Advice Animals, Rage Comics, and more.
If you ask me, I would never take it easy if my children were using 4chan. The name of the site is enough to trigger a parent who knows what it’s all about. Such websites must be kept out of the reach of children, and as a parent, it’s your job to take the required measures.
With the majority of explicit content, sites like 4chan require parental allowance before they are accessed by children. To prevent your kids from accessing this site, you can try setting up parental controls on their gadgets or simply using their device’s settings to block it.
Even I wondered why sites like 4chan were up and running. Considering the previous scandals and multiple cybercrime incidents, how is this site still getting a green flag from authorities?
It stays true to the fact that users can be true to the notion and discuss anything they want. So, in a way, it could be a user-centric website that even allows its users to report something that violates the rules. But, it’s the visitors alone that have been keeping this site up and running.
Not only this, there are 8Chan, 12Chan, and even 16Chan with similar interfaces. With 4chan being available, the rest are prohibited from search engines but are still available on the dark web.
4chan allows its users to post an image anonymously and start a discussion thread on it.
4chan is not at all safe for kids due to the presence of extremely graphic images and easily accessible explicit content.
Yes, 4chan is still running, and you can simply access it from any internet browser.
