The imageboard website 4chan, which was founded in 2003, receives 20 million visitors per month and adds 900,000 new postings every day, know is it like Reddit, meaning, its memes and hacker on it
However, because of its over-18 age restriction and anonymity, 4chan is risky for teenagers to utilise.
What Is 4Chan, Meaning, Memes, Hacker And Is It Like Reddit
this. #biden #HunterBiden #4chan pic.twitter.com/o9gOgV5jmG
— NALGA RESEARCH👺(🥊,🐶) (@nalga_research) July 10, 2022
Users posting or commenting on #4chan threads about the #HunterBiden iOS discoveries are being banned and threads are being closed. However the floodgates are open. The files are now in the hands of countless anons. pic.twitter.com/1rZsS2Uk4O
— John Curtis (@Johnmcurtis) July 10, 2022
Young men primarily utilise the image-board website 4chan. According to official statistics, people between the ages of 18 and 25 are the most common. However, there are several individual accounts of teenagers who use 4chan available online.
It was initially developed as a response to Japan’s 2chan and utilised for anime discussion. However, it now features easily accessible forums for everything from video gaming to explicit content for all site visitors. Numerous internet jokes, political movements, and hacktivism all originate from 4chan. As a result, it has been at the centre of numerous media scandals.
How is 4chan structured?
There is no registration required for 4chan users. Any discussion and all photographs can be shared anonymously. A user can select any of the boards when they get on the website. Then a notification will appear saying that the content is only for “mature” users, denying any wrongdoing on the message boards, and advising users to read the guidelines.
Despite the fact that 4chan’s age restriction is stated in the site rules, the word “mature” can be taken the wrong way by some. For instance, a teen who visits the site might believe that, despite being a child, they are old enough to access the content.
Then, users have the option to “Start a New Thread” with an image and enter their name or remain anonymous. Once a post is made, other users have the option to directly and anonymously respond to it. Users’ IP addresses are however still monitored and may be blocked if site policies are broken. The prohibitions are appealable.
Because of the widely accessible objectionable content on the web, 4chan is only for users who are at least 18 years old. Despite having regulations for each board on the website, the most popular board, /b/ or “random,” has less rules. In fact, it permits certain pornographic and obscene content in addition to hate speech like racism and transphobia.
Such content is not permitted outside of /b/, according to the site policies. Some message boards are designated as “worksafe,” which means that posting offensive material is prohibited.
Why is 4chan a contentious topic?
4chan has been the subject of numerous controversies due to the material that can be discovered on the imageboard. Gamergate, different cyberattacks, violence threats in America, and child pornography are notable examples. Concerns about the community’s encouragement of violence and misogyny throughout the website are understandable.
Teenagers may still use the website despite these risks. This may be due to the amusing memes that are circulated around communities or the fact that the site’s inventor was a teenager when he made the website.
Although 4chan.com may be blocked on some IP addresses, it’s crucial to be aware of any potential workarounds that particularly tech-savvy teenagers might employ. These can include setting up VPNs and experimenting with various domain suffixes.
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