Dark Web is a hidden section of the internet that can only be accessed using TOR which is an anonymous browsing network. We talked to a computer genius at our school about this secret location on the world wide web. Marvin Carmack, our information technology specialist, has been working for schools since 2005, going from Adams 12 to Douglas County and then joining the Englewood campus, “We don’t really dive into a whole lot but I know that we filter the content to prohibit us and our students to get into those areas. The digital citizenship piece of it, we filter hard to try not to allow that to happen.”

According to csoonline.com, a group that provides news, analysis, and research on security and risk management, the dark web is a part of the internet that you can’t get to via search engines. It is full of criminal activity. The website cites Researchers Daniel Moore and Thomas Rid of King’s College in London who “classified the contents of 2,723 live dark web sites over a five-week period a couple of years ago and found that 57 percent host illicit material.”

The site says “you can buy credit card numbers, all manner of drugs, guns, counterfeit money, stolen subscription credentials, hacked Netflix accounts and software that helps you break into other people’s computers.”

Our IT specialist says content may come from out of the country, “So you know the CIA and the police department, they are actively looking in those areas and most of the time I think a lot of that black web stuff is coming from outside this country and its other parts of the world that are heavily involved in that,” says Carmack.

Because we have a lot of computers at EHS, the IT department is busy blocking material, “So we work very hard to keep away and keep us isolated from that and it’s not impossible but we have tools in place that we are able to see those types of activities.” Network tools help keep our system safe,

“Our network system admin, he has a lot of network tools that bring some alerts very quickly and we have a learning firewall that has some type of technology that self learns to stop that.”

One EHS student says he is familiar with that part of the internet, “I know a lot about it actually, and it can get you in a lot of trouble with the FBI. You can hire assassins, there’s human trafficking, child/sex slaves. You can buy illegal guns and drugs,” said Adrean Hernandez (10 ).

Not wanting to get in legal trouble, he says he knows it is not something to play around with, “It’s more complicating than just coding when you’re trying to get in, cause you have to go to a really good in incognito which is a tab that hides what you’re doing,” says Hernandez.

“The dark web isn’t something to mess with you have to be extremely careful, cause its a dangerous place along with all the stuff that is out there such as drugs, sex trafficking, guns, and many other illegal items to purchase and you also have to use bitcoin so your credit card wouldn’t get traced or hacked,” says Gabe Torres (11).

But the dark web also has a legitimate side. We learned you can join a chess club or BlackBook, a social network described as “the Facebook of Tor.”