Top 10 Most Controversial Websites

10 The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is a website for sharing and locating torrent files (special plain text files) that allow you to download movies, software, and music legally and illegally. There have been numerous attempts to shut the site down but as it is just serving text files and not the actual illegal data, these attempts have failed. The site is based in Sweden. [Website]

9 Ogrish

Ogrish.com was a shock site which presented uncensored news coverage and multimedia material based for the most part on war, accidents and executions. Much of the material depicted was graphic, uncensored, gory videos and images. The content was depicted as a means to challenge the viewer, with its catch line being ‘Can you handle life’, but later changed to ‘Uncover Reality’ after the site received a major design overhaul with aims of becoming more open to the general public and become a respected ‘alternative news service’. [Wikipedia | Website]

8 Rotten

Rotten.com is a United States-hosted shock site with a slogan of “An archive of disturbing illustration” operated by Soylent Communications. It is devoted to morbid curiosities, primarily pictures of gruesome fatalities, deformities, autopsy or forensic photographs, depictions of perverse sex acts, and historical curios that are disturbing or misanthropic in nature. The site was founded in 1996, and its format has changed very little since that time.

[Wikipedia | Website]

7 Fight Videos

First, there were Bumfights videos, then there were gang fights and now we have kids fighting and recording their fights to post online. Sadly, some of the participants are either unwilling or unaware of what is going on. [Website]

6 Pro-Pedophilia

There is a movement to legalize and encourage consensual sexual relationships between adults and “consenting” minors. They have gained legitimacy in recent years and have garnered support from the likes of Allen Ginsberg. The most prominent of these sites (NAMBLA) has been parodied in South Park and other comedy movies. [Website]

5 Murderabelia

Some murderabelia is simply murder-related, while some is created by actual murderers. Some states in the US have enacted Son of Sam laws where killers are not allowed to profit from their crimes, but these laws are often stricken down as unconstitutional. [Website]

4 Glorifying Serial Killers

I personally am not troubled by learning about serial killers, but some people take it a little far. From calendars to trading cards, there is an entire community seemingly obsessed with all things serial killer related. [Website]

3 Crime Scene Photos

What makes this controversial is how it might impact the victim’s families. While these pictures are often in the public domain, others are leaked or stolen from police files. I remember seeing a story on a news magazine show about a family being tormented by someone constantly emailing them pictures of the scene of their daughter’s fatal car accident. [Website]

2 Suicide Ideas and Assistance

Apparently some people think it’s a good idea to encourage people who are suffering from depression to consider suicide as an option, or at least encourage them to not rule it out. To me this seems incredibly cruel. [Website]

1 Pro-Anorexia

There are websites dedicated to legitimizing lifestyles centered on anorexia and bulimia. These sites provide tips and tricks for hiding your disorder as well as “thinspiration” pictures of skinny people, often celebrities. Governments all over the world are cracking down on these sites, but they are still out there and there is a movement to support their right to exist. [Website]