I don't think the kid will be too scarred for life. He'll be too young to identify later on. Take a look at the Numa Numa guy and Star Wars kid. Now
those are two that will never be able to live their internet fame down.
As for the whole computer screen thing, I have labelled them "Scary Popups", as they usually involve a face popping out of the screen and shrieking
at you. The first one I ever saw was being home alone in the summer for a week while the rest of my family went camping. It was around 9-10 am and I
was sitting at the computer when someone I was talking to gave me a link. If anybody knows of this exact video... I can't find it any more. It's
probably on AlbinoBlacksheep though. It was called Sahjd Ali or something like that. It had a picture of stonehenge and peaceful music that was
cleverly set up so that as soon as the music started going down, you leaned in to turn up the volumn and BAM the face popped out at you and shrieked
ridiculously loud.
That's the only time I have ever been so scared that I literally yelled an "AHHHHH!" out loud, and jumped out of my chair.
As I scrambled to blindly click the "X" in the corner without looking at the face, the guy that sent it to me then went on to say something about it
being the face of a real demon. It was at that point that my computer began making a loud buzz-saw noise for about 30 seconds, before the entire
computer seized up and would not start up again. Turned out to be the hard drive.
So anyways, I was left home alone with no computer, scared out of my wits for a week. To this day, I have suspicions opening any link, looking in
darkened windows, mirrors in the dark, etc, for fear of a "Scary popup". So yeah, I would say they instill a certain level of paranoia in you, and
eff you up for life.
Needless to say, I got my dad with it soon afterwards when they got home. I could hear the scary face's blood-curdling shriek from all the way
upstairs. Got him good.
The second scariest one I ever saw, I watched by choice. I had suspicions of it being a "Scary popup" the entire time I was watching it, and closed
it just before it happened. Later, I watched it at my friend's house. Some of you may know this as the "Subliminal Messages" one. It flashes the
images of scary screaming faces, dead babies, bodies run over by trains, and similar things at a rate of about five per second, for about 30 seconds
straight.
I'd like to know how the people who make these things can even look at the pictures without freaking themselves out
. It's honestly probably
quite a good way of detecting if someone is a psychopath or not. My friend can just sit and watch all of these "scary popups" without even
flinching. Like come on, that just ain't right... lol.
Honestly though, every kid who doesn't have underlying mental problems should be subjected to at least one "Scary popup", just to have them
constantly watching their backs. Maybe get parents to sign a form and do it in class on a huge projector screen. Heh, I know it's horrible, but when
the little kid is pounding the computer monitor with both hands, it's just too hilarious.
Getting tricked into watching a scary popup is just one of the necessary forms of losing your 'Internet virginity'.
[edit on 5-4-2006 by Yarcofin]