
How much can you trust the World Wide Web? Discover these Internet urban legends and decide for yourself what to believe!
Urban legends have been a staple in almost every culture for centuries. With local creepy stories revolving around aspects of the real world like tales surrounding the MTR and ghosts haunting Hong Kong universities, the practice of storytelling is boundless. While stories of the past may have been traded over campfires and dinner tables, the world of the Internet has now made connecting with the world easier than ever. From haunted websites to ritualistic games, these infamous Internet urban legends have been uniquely born and bred online – making horror stories more interesting than ever (and even spawning their own scary feature films).
Chilling Internet urban legends that’ll freak you out
1. Ted the caver

An early standout in the realm of modern Internet urban legends, the story of Ted the caver can be traced to the (still active) Angelfire website: Ted’s Caving Page. Itself a delightful capsule of early-Internet web design, Ted’s Caving Page is a simple, blog-style website recounting the exploits of Ted as he explores an unnamed cave system. Complete with detailed technical caving knowledge and accompanying photographs, the relative banality of the blog posts is what makes everything all the more sinister when odd things start to unfold. As strange symbols and noises are encountered while Ted and his friend start having nightmares and hallucinations, the final post – dated May 2001 – ends eerily with Ted promising to return from the cave with more answers.
One of the first urban legends to be born and bred online, the story of Ted the caver was widely shared across message boards – where users debated its authenticity and the location of the mystery cave. Indeed, the large swaths of technical details and personalised images lent to its believability. It wasn’t until years later that the original writer, Ted Hegemann, came forward to explain that while some early aspects of the story were true, it was heavily embellished with many creative liberties taken.
2. Hitori Kakurenbo

Also known as Hide-and-Seek-Alone, Hitori Kakurenbo is a Japanese game that allows you to play hide and seek by yourself – along with a few spirits. Allegedly first circulated on a defunct Japanese horror forum similar to 4chan, the game’s instructions were translated and posted on various platforms across the Internet. To play the game, one must conduct a ritual for summoning a spirit. While the rules and objects vary slightly depending on where you look, players will generally need: a stuffed doll with limbs, some rice to stuff the doll with, a needle and red thread, a sharp tool, a cup of salt, nail clippings, a bathtub or sink filled with water, and a hiding place preferably purified by incense. Intended to draw a spirit into the doll, the game has to start at 3am and the ritual must be completed fully.
The initial explosion of Hitori Kakurenbo across the Internet led many online users to upload their own experiences playing the game. Many detailed accounts including videos of players’ games are online, with some swearing by its legitimacy and others dismissing it as an Internet hoax. If you’re brave enough, try looking up the full instructions and seeing for yourself – but remember to end the game within two hours unless you want the spirits to remain!
3. The Blind Maiden

Allegedly originating in Spain, The Blind Maiden is among the Internet urban legends that rely on an actual website. While blindmaiden.com usually leads to an empty page, if it is accessed in the right circumstances – usually alone during a new moon in a dark room, users will find a mysterious blind woman who’ll grant you a choice involving gruesome, ripped out eyes to add to her collection.
While the brave amongst us can try to access the website themselves, others can instead live vicariously through encounters relayed online. In fact, some claim that this urban legend initially spread due to a user fainting, being assumed dead by the blind woman, and thus living to tell the tale.
4. Dear David

Perhaps the most famous urban legend that spawned from Twitter (now X), Dear David is a series of viral tweets from writer and illustrator Adam Ellis about a dead child supposedly haunting his apartment. Through the power of the Internet, people could watch this tale unfold in real time over a few months in 2017 and 2018. Complete with photos, videos, and audio recordings, Ellis details his experience being haunted by the ghost of a boy with a dent in his head.
Based on who you ask, Dear David is either a fascinating example of modern social media-based storytelling or a real-time documentation of an actual haunting. While Ellis maintains that he merely recounted real life experiences without the intention to prove if ghosts or spirits are real, the story of Dear David soon took on a life of its own. The story soon spawned a 2023 movie and remains a prime example of storytelling in the Internet age.
5. The Black-Eyed Children

While now a recurring presence in the world of horror, the rise of the phenomenon of Black-Eyed Children can in fact be considered one of the earliest Internet urban legends. The first reported story of these sinister figures is said to have been from journalist Brian Bethel in the 90s, when he recounted his story online. Bethel claims to have encountered two children with coal-black eyes who asked him for a ride and sufficiently freaked him out. Since then, many online accounts have been published of others encountering Black-Eyed Children, who are usually no more than 16 years old in dark clothes that need to be invited inside before they can enter cars or homes.
Although Bethel has maintained that his creepy encounter actually occurred, it can be safe to assume that a few of the subsequent stories may be exercises in creative fiction. As the concept of Black-Eyed Children spread, they soon began to pop up frequently in scary stories. Whether some of these encounters are actually true, Black-Eyed Children have certainly earned their place in the annals of Internet horror.
6. Annora Petrova

Have you ever read a particularly spooky Wikipedia page? Probably not as chilling as the one Annora Petrova found in this sinister tale. While surfing the Internet, young figure skater Annora Petrova stumbled upon her own Wikipedia page. If this page of unknown origin wasn’t eerie enough, Petrova began to notice that the details of the page were predicting events in her future. Petrova would soon check the page before her competitions to see her results until one day, when given an unfavourable outcome, Petrova attempted to edit the page. As a result, the Wikipedia page soon began showing menacing and demeaning messages and foretelling horrible things happening to her, eventually predicting – you guessed it – her untimely death.
While a creative example of modern urban legends shaped by the Internet, the story of Annora Petrova has largely been debunked. With no record of either her or her Wikipedia page existing, this online horror story can be taken as a work of creative fiction that carries a warning.
7. The Slenderman

Perhaps one of the most infamous Internet urban legends is that of The Slenderman. First coming to life in 2009 as a Photoshopped image uploaded by Eric Knudsen to the online forum Something Awful, it soon tragically seeped into the real world. The original images by Knudsen were black and white photos of children playing while a tall, unearthly figure in a black suit lurked in the background. From then on, the legend of The Slenderman took off. While not committing any violent acts, The Slenderman instead acted as a mysterious, ominous presence in people’s lives. The lore around this elongated figure has since become rather extensive, with video games and films soon made about the legend – the collaborative nature of this legend becoming something rather unique.
However, in 2014, a truly devastating real-life incident occurred concerning two 12-year-old girls committing a violent act that they claimed was a tribute to The Slenderman. The story of The Slenderman stands as an unfortunate example of the dangers of separating fact from fiction in things seen on the Internet.