KIDS’ WEB Children as young as 12 are using bitcoins on dark sites to deal in cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine
THE dark web is the shadow of the regular internet.
It’s unknown to the millions of people who use the internet everyday.
But it is growing. And it’s dangerous.
It has been described as an “online wild west” where there are no rules and everything is up for grabs.
Stolen credit cards, porn, drugs and weapons are all just a couple of clicks away.
More users in the UK than any other country get their drugs from the dark web.
And among them are children.
The crime is so new that no statistics have been collected yet.
But we know it’s out there.
Ruined
Our investigation found teens earning thousands dealing from the dark web.
But lives are being ruined.
The Government and authorities must do more to try and regulate the dark web, although it is extremely difficult.
In the meantime, there are measures that parents can take to help. The first thing is to try and keep an eye on youngsters internet use.
And there some obvious warning signs as well. Packages start arriving, they suddenly have extra cash, if their mood changes, then there might be something going on.
No one is asking parents to spy on their own kids.
But by recognising the dangers you can help not just your own family, but others that could be at risk.
And help end the scourge of the dark web for good. CHILDREN as young as 12 are using the dark web to deal in drugs.
Our investigators found how thousands of youngsters are paying for cocaine, MDMA and ketamine with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin on encrypted websites.
The web savvy generation of schoolkids then sell the goods in person for cash.
One boy told how he made over £7,000 in less than 18 months dealing to friends.
But he ended up addicted to drugs himself and his horrified parents found out when he collapsed from a ketamine overdose outside a nightclub.
His dad warned last night: “We had no idea this was going on right under our noses and I would urge other parents to educate themselves about the dark web because it can ruin lives.”
The boy invested £100 in Bitcoin when he was 13 and used it to deal after getting the idea from friends at school who were involved in the illegal trade.
On his laptop, he downloaded a web browser that lets users access areas of the internet invisible to other software.
He then subscribed to a “virtual private network” to hide his location and internet use from parents and the authorities.
He found a drug dealer in minutes using a dark web search engine.
The lad, now aged 15, told the Sunday People: “It was like TripAdvisor with loads of buyer ratings on quality and reliability.
Spiked
“Knowing my mum and dad would become really suspicious if random packages started arriving for me at home, I spoke to a mate at school whose mum wasn’t very clued-up, who said I could get it sent to him for £20.
“So I ordered three grams of ketamine at £10 a gram, and three grams of coke at £20 a gram and waited.”
He then described how he came into contact with thousands of other youngsters using dark web forums to exchange information and do deals.
His drug transactions were veiled as eBay purchases so that even if his parents did see them, they would have no idea what they were for.
The drugs were delivered in vacuumsealed envelopes to a friend’s house with his name on the front.
He then advertised his Class A haul on Snapchat – where messages last 10 seconds before being deleted – and delivered on his bicycle.
It was only when he became addicted to his own stock and overdosed on ketamine that his parents uncovered the truth last November.
The boy continued: “Things started to go wrong just before Christmas when I got tempted to try the drugs myself. Because they came direct from the supplier, with no middlemen, everyone told me I had to give it a go, so I did and, of course, loved the highs.
“I started doing a line of coke before I’d deliver or I’d just do a line of ket when I was out with mates.
“Soon I started bunking off school and my grades started going down. My predicted Bs soon started looking more like Ds.
“My football also started to suf- fer. I was benched almost all the time and my coaches told me I wasn’t up to it anymore.
“But I was making £800 a month and didn’t care. My life now was doing drugs and making money. Nothing else mattered. My parents got a few emails and letters from school saying there were issues with my schoolwork but they put it down to me being a teenager, just a phase. “I I spiralled down, doing more and more drugs myself, until last N November I went to a nightclub and o overdosed on ketamine. “I can’t remember much, m but in the early hours of the morn morning two nurses found me lying on the pavement and asked who I was, who they could call to get me home safely safely. “I could hardly talk, b but kept repeating my dad’s mobile n number. So they called him, he drove straightaway s to pick me up, by which tim time I’d started to come round and could co talk again. “When we got home, mum and dad sat me down in the living room and asked what had happened. I just said my drink must’ve been spiked but my dad could see through my lie.
“He went up to my room and eventually found the scales, little baggies and empty jiffy bags, and asked me to tell the truth.
“I decided to tell them the whole truth. I wanted to come clean and I wanted my life to be how it was before.
“Mum and dad were really upset and shocked. They’d had no idea this was going on.”
He was one of many at his Lancashire school – and thousands of others on dark web forums – behaving in the same way.
“It wasn’t only older kids. Lots were my age or younger – 12 or 13,” he added.
His therapist, addiction expert Steve Pope, warned of a “silent epidemic” of children buying and using drugs from the dark web.
He said: “Never has it been so easy for