Featured Image Credit: Andrew Brookes / Getty / TikTok/spOuk
The internet might now all look a little bit more homogenized and samey compared to a decade ago, but that's come with at least a few major benefits.
One of them is that there are way fewer blatantly evil almost malware-level websites floating around suckering people into clicking on them, and then locking them into terrible experiences.
A viral trend on TikTok has seen creators looking into these so-called 'shocksites' and profiling them for their viewers, explaining what they were and how horrific they got.
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One such case has gained a reputation as the 'most evil website on the internet' - although it's thankfully now defunct after being taken down.
As explained by TikTok creator @Sp0uk_, known as Spooky, it masqueraded as a site dedicated to women's empowerment, but would in fact immediately run scripts whenever someone clicked on it - something that immediately marks it out as nasty.
*Distress warning*
These scripts would try to lock the user out of their controls, turn their computer's volume up to the maximum, and then play horrible and gory videos on their screen without their consent.
It's what's known as a 'bait and switch' website - people thought they were clicking on a website about female empowerment, when it would actually reveal grisly vieos of women being tortured.
It's incredibly grim stuff and a reminder that there are people out there seeking to use the World Wide Web for the most depressing of reasons.
It would often be near-impossible to exit these sites once they'd forced you into full-screen mode, with pop-up messages spamming you and rendering your computer almost inoperable unless you did a hard restart.
Thankfully, the prevalence of built-in adblockers and antivirus software means it's way less likely now that you'll ever stumble upon one of these websites without having to click through at least a few warnings about the dangers of doing so.
If you use a VPN as well, you'll basically be defended up to the gills, ensuring that you're not in any real danger of being taken advantage of by sites like the one described.
Still, on a human level, it's a bit dispiriting to learn about these sites - they're almost criminal in their intent, which is why it's no surprise to see TikTok creators basically treat them like true crime cases they can report on.
Just make sure that, under basically any circumstances, you don't get tempted to search for any of these types of sites - it's never, ever worth it, and the curiosity you feel is something you shouldn't indulge!
