He’s clearly a deeply disturbed – not to say creepy – individual who likes to dress up as schoolchildren and post weird, unsettling and in some cases revolting videos and images on the internet.
For now, his true identity remains unknown. But there is no doubt that the chilling case of ‘Smartschoolboy9’ has sent parts of internet into a collective tailspin.
Online sleuths around the world are furiously trying to work out his real name and accurate location – though he is thought to be in south London.
A single YouTube video investigating the case has some ten million views, while posts on TikTok, Reddit, X and other sites have collectively amassed millions of views, as people share competing theories and assess the evidence.
The case of Smartschoolboy9 may turn out to be a sick prank – or he may be a child predator at large, flaunting his paedophile predilections.
So why has he drawn such horrified fascination?
According to American YouTuber Nick Crowley – who has 2.6million subscribers – the origins of this chilling episode began on Instagram in 2021 when several accounts were launched in succession.
There is no doubt that the chilling case of ‘Smartschoolboy9’ (pictured) has sent parts of internet into a collective tailspin
The case of Smartschoolboy9 may turn out to be a sick prank – or he may be a child predator at large, flaunting his paedophile predilections
Online sleuths around the world are furiously trying to work out his real name and accurate location – though he is thought to be in south London
‘Smartschoolboy9’ consisted of photos and videos of an overweight man dressed as a hideous caricature of a schoolboy
The account as thousands of followers and the videos it has posted have amassed millions of views
The first, ‘truth_sticks_11’, claimed to be run by a 12-year-old boy and his mother. It started posting pictures of a young blond boy, who may in fact have been an AI creation all along.
‘Beautiful boy and account looked after by me, a degree-educated mother, choosing to stay anonymous,’ the ‘mother’ oddly announced.
The photos began fairly normally, showing a young boy at school.
Over time, however, they became ever more strange, with the child’s face digitally distorted to feature huge pouting lips enhanced with red lipstick and featuring a protruding tongue.
The face was whitened, the hair yellowed, the eyes piercingly blue. The final image was cartoonish and extremely unnerving.
The pictures also became grotesquely suggestive, some reportedly veering towards child pornography.
At times the boy’s face was digitally moved on to scantily dressed adult bodies, while similarly manipulated images of other children showed them in contorted positions and even tied up.
The creator also appeared to have an obsession with women’s high-heeled mini boots, with many of the images featuring children edited to appear to be wearing them.
A second Instagram account, ‘girl.chloe12’, claimed to belong to a 13-year-old who shared the same obsession with the high-heeled boots.
Crowley and others have argued this was classic ‘fetish content’ – but horribly focused on children.
The third account, ‘Smartschoolboy9’, was altogether more chilling.
It consisted of photos and videos of an overweight man dressed as a hideous caricature of a schoolboy, much of his face painted white with bright red lipstick and wearing those same high-heeled mini space boots – an unnerving real-life imitation of the AI-generated boy in the first account, albeit with a receding hairline.
He spoke with a disturbing high-pitched voice and his tongue was almost permanently protruding.
Much of the man’s face has been painted white with bright red lipstick while they are wearing high-heeled mini space boots
Photos have emerged of the man dressed obscenely as Stefanie, complete with school uniform, wig, boater and short skirt
The person behind the account spoke with a disturbing high-pitched voice and his tongue was almost permanently protruding
Some of the videos showed this individual ‘in costume’ in the hallway of a terraced London house apparently after arriving home from school.
Another showed him on a bus supposedly heading to school and another walking down the street.
Others were even more sinister, which understandably attracted particular alarm, in which he appeared to be chasing a real little boy, giggling, through a park.
Internet sleuths say they’ve discovered evidence that the poster has created at least a dozen similar accounts, all of them involving fictitious children – such as 13-year-old poet ‘Stefanie’ – publishing sexually suggestive posts and eerily messaging each other if as if they were friends.
Photos have emerged of the man dressed obscenely as Stefanie, complete with school uniform, wig, boater and short skirt.
Crowley and many others suspect that the man behind Smartschoolboy9 could be a sexual predator who is trying to reach genuine children.
Has he already claimed any victims? Pictures of numerous children posted by Smartschoolboy9 don’t appear elsewhere on the internet, suggesting he has been contacting children privately before sharing their photos online, says Mr Crowley.
With photos suggesting he is following real children around and that footage of him chasing the boy, internet users have become determined to unmask the real individual and alert the authorities.
There are several clues. His posts including frequent shots of specific parts of Streatham, south London. Smartschoolboy9 also repeatedly mentions someone he calls David, leading many to suspect that that is his real name. He has also claimed to be in his 50s.
Recently, fresh video footage was posted on X, apparently filmed by a group of children, and claiming to show the south London terraced house where the man lives.
Disturbingly, as the children were filming outside, a hand appeared from inside the house, clinging to the front door.
Internet sleuths say they’ve discovered evidence that the poster has created at least a dozen similar accounts, all of them involving fictitious children
Some of the videos showed this individual ‘in costume’ in the hallway of a terraced London house apparently after arriving home from school
Smartschoolboy9 repeatedly mentions someone he calls David, leading many to suspect that that is his real name
In London, police in Greenwich reportedly circulated a message on social media saying that a man was ‘pretending to be a child and engaging with kids on social media,’ adding: ‘An investigation is ongoing, but his intentions are unclear. Stay vigilant and talk to your children about online safety.’ The post was later removed.
The Met confirmed yesterday that it has been made aware of at least one video linked to Smartschoolboy9, in this case showing the man dressed as a schoolboy walking down a corridor.
It told the Daily Mail in a statement: ‘We are aware of the video being posted online. As no crime has been committed in the content of the video, we are not investigating anything at this time.’
On Wednesday, the respected organisation Safer Schools put out an alert, saying that its ‘online safeguarding team’ had received reports of someone who posed a ‘serious risk’ and was ‘potentially masquerading as a child on social media in order to interact with children’.
It went on: ‘Copycat accounts have emerged, and videos related to this issue are circulating in some schools. This has caused fear and anxiety among some younger children who have been exposed to this harmful content.’
Some schools are already putting out their own warnings to parents on social media, saying children may be watching SmartSchoolBoy9. One concerned Hertfordshire primary school said that the material was ‘highly inappropriate’ and stressed that children shouldn’t be watching it.
No doubt that’s true. But until the individual is definitively unmasked, it seems unlikely that the rising panic will stop.
