The Strangest Internet Rabbit Holes
TL;DR
A tour of four distinct internet mysteries: missing children displayed on retro arcade machines, an anomalous figure captured on a Japanese live cam, a deeply strange YouTube channel containing unidentified footage, and a Reddit user documenting what appears to be a psychotic episode in real time. Each case explores how the internet preserves, surfaces, and sometimes partially solves obscure mysteries. ---
Key Concepts
PSA arcade screens
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Public service announcements embedded into arcade game idle screens, common in the US during the 1980s–90s anti-drug campaigns
Sente arcade machines
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Machines by Bally/Sente Incorporated (mini golf, Give Me a Break) that uniquely featured missing children screens during idle cycles
Live cam archives
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Japanese prefectural road authority cameras that take hourly photos but only retain them for ~7 days, making verification of anomalies nearly impossible after the fact
Lost media / obscure YouTube
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The idea that footage considered "lost" may actually exist in unlisted or obscure YouTube channels, unrecognized
Drug-induced psychosis
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A temporary psychotic state that can be triggered by misuse of psychedelics/drugs, producing auditory hallucinations and delusions indistinguishable from reality to the sufferer
Notes
§Missing Children on Arcade Machines
- User "Joe" photographed a Sente arcade machine cycling through a missing children screen at an arcade and posted it to Reddit
- This sparked broader internet investigation — many others had seen the same screen over the years
- Context: 1980s–90s US anti-drug PSAs were embedded everywhere — TV, radio, VHS, NES, and arcade machines
- Most famous example: "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen, included in North American arcade imports 1989–2000
- The missing children screen appears specifically on Sente (Bally) machines, mainly Mini Golf and Give Me a Break
- 2017 interview with Sente programmer Dennis Coble: believes the FBI likely initiated the project, possibly via Bally as intermediary; Sente was a small company
- Taj Allen Merriman: family abduction case; found safe ~July 12, 1985 in Georgia; mother arrested
- Stephen Philip Curtis: born March 3, 1977; last seen Hoquiam, Washington, November 1981; classified as parental kidnapping
- Still listed as missing 8 years after the arcade's release (1993 records)
- A forum user found a strong candidate: Stephen P. Curtis, born 1977, living in Lacey, WA — ~1 hour from Hoquiam; age and location match
- Melinda Marie Smith, April Rose Yates, Daniel Godfrey Owens, Charles Brandon Morris: appear on other, rarer Sente machines (added later)
- No information found online, in newspapers, or in public records for any of these four
- The only surviving record of them is the arcade machine itself
§The Figure on the Izu Skyline Live Cam
- November 1, 2020: Japanese Twitter user akihiro shared a photo from a live cam hosted by the Shizuoka Prefecture Road Corporation
- Camera location: remote road near the Izu Skyline observation deck, south of Mount Fuji
- The 6am photo showed a pitch-black humanoid figure standing in the middle of the road
- No shadow visible despite daylight
- No vehicle present — figure would have had to hike to the location
- Figure appears to be facing the camera, completely still
- Road width measured via Google Maps distance tool: 8 meters (standard 2-lane road in Japan)
- Estimated figure height based on proportional comparison: ~2.2 meters (7'2")
- Average height of Japanese adult male: 1.7 meters
- The site only archives photos for 7 days; no Wayback Machine archive exists for that exact date
- akihiro posted 5 days after the photo was taken — it was still live and verifiable at that point
- Replies under the original tweet did not question the photo's authenticity
- akihiro's Twitter account active since 2012, highly ordinary content — no indication of fabrication
- A prank: someone in a dark bodysuit or using a silhouette cutout, aware of the camera's schedule
- An unusually tall person who happened to be passing through at exactly that moment (considered least likely given the composition and stillness)
- No conclusion reached; the mystery remains unresolved
§User9472 — The Strange YouTube Channel
- Channel filled with abstract, untitled videos ranging from seconds to a few minutes long
- Content ranges from slideshows of interior environments to glitched/disturbing visuals
- Notable videos that appeared to be sourced from elsewhere (not original to the channel):
- "Bride": a named/described video; person in a wedding dress standing in an isolated location
- Old amateur cartoon of a horse and carriage
- Footage of someone in strange clothing speaking into a mic on a stage
- A woman standing in water holding a fish in her mouth
- Woman with fish: identified as Stephanie Dill's audition tape for Survivor Season 5; the clip appears at ~24 minutes into the season's reunion episode — what seemed disturbing was actually a joke within the show
- Cartoon animation: tentatively linked to Soviet-era Eastern European animation; a Slovak Twitter account appears connected to the channel
- All other footage remains unidentified
- Raises the question of how much "lost media" is actually sitting unrecognized in obscure YouTube channels
- User9472 is described as a small example of YouTube's largely unmapped, strange underside
§Ryan Matthew Carson — Telepathic Harassment
- Reddit user educational_reach_489 (real name: Ryan Matthew Carson) posted a thread titled "Telepathic Harassment" that was largely ignored
- Claims a group of individuals has been harassing him via telepathic mind communication for ~7 months, including death threats
- Was hospitalized multiple times; diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder by medical professionals
- Insists with certainty the voices are real people using technology, not a mental illness
- Follow-up post titled "Neurological Control Device" described:
- A technology used by a group of psychopaths
- Capabilities: implementing thoughts, seeing through his eyes, reading his mind, controlling his body, altering dreams
- Believes the technology was created by the Chinese government; an organization/government is aware
- Also posted an audio clip elaborating on the same claims
- Posted across multiple subreddits (r/weird, r/sketch, r/questions, r/scary) with little engagement
- Ryan's Reddit history shows interest in psychedelics; last post before the harassment thread was on r/ShambhalaSerenity asking about tickets to Shambhala Music Festival (known for heavy drug use)
- Ryan himself acknowledges taking drugs in the months prior but dismisses it as unrelated
- Per the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): drug-induced psychosis can be triggered by psychedelic misuse and produces hallucinations indistinguishable from reality
- The video referenced was uploaded ~1 week before the time of writing with no further updates from Ryan
Actionable Takeaways
- When encountering internet mysteries involving missing persons, cross-reference newspaper archives and public records before assuming a case is unresolved
- For time-sensitive web anomalies (live cams, ephemeral posts), archive immediately using the Wayback Machine or screenshots — a 7-day window disappears fast
- Before labeling YouTube footage as "lost media," attempt reverse image search and comparison against known TV/film archives — context changes everything
- Treat posts describing paranoid persecution and telepathic communication with care: engage respectfully, avoid amplifying or mocking, and recognize possible mental health crisis
Quotes Worth Keeping
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The only lasting record of them ever existing is on an obscure arcade castle — a mystery that will forever be immortalized within an old arcade game system.
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"I'm not crazy... I have dabbled in substances fairly much so." — Ryan Matthew Carson
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It makes me realize that YouTube is far bigger and stranger than anyone likes to acknowledge, and user9472 is just a small speck of that.