Parents warn of dark web after son took his own life

A grieving family is warning of the hidden dangers of online gaming after their 15-year-old son took his own life following weeks of blackmail and psychological torment by an anonymous predator on a dark web forum.

- ATHENA STAVROU

Christoforos Nicolaou, 15, died just 50 days after he began receiving disturbing messages after clicking a pop-up link that appeared while he was playing video games.

After being lured in with the promise of free in-game credits, the teenager was tricked into entering personal details such as his name, address, phone number, and passport details in January 2022. Moments later, he received a message threatening to kill his family if he did not complete a series of “challenges” set by an anonymous stranger online.

This blackmail continued and progressively worsened for 50 days until he took his own life at the beginning of March 2022.

His father, George Nicolaou, 54, from Waltham Cross, Herts, only discovered what had happened when he looked at his son’s laptop and phone after his death and read through the online chat.

He and Christoforos’s mother, Areti, 51, launched the Christoforos Charity Foundation (CCF) in their son’s memory to raise awareness about the dangers of the internet and cyberbullying.

“Children can stumble into these online dangers unknowingly, not recognising them as harmful, but then get drawn deeper into these dark and dangerous dimensions of the web,” George told The Independent.