Black Eyed Children: The Real Mystery Is Why This Topic Is Trending

Are black eyed children real?

Sightings of black eyed children have been somewhat common since 1988. Most of the accounts are in agreement about most details: Black eyed children are between the ages of six and 16, only show up at night, speak in a monotone voice, don’t seem to breathe, and show up at your front door and ask to be invited in to use your phone or eat some food.

What are black eyed children? Some people think they’re extra-terrestrials, others say that they’re inter-dimensional beings stuck on our plane. Others say they’re of demonic origin, while some claim that they’re out-and-out vampires.

I don’t know how much you know about online journalism, but most of us new media writers get our material by observing trends, i.e., what kind of things the most people are reading about at any given time. “Black eyed children” as a topic is rising ever since, by my measure, the subject appeared on the front page of MSN earlier today under the title “Spooky sightings of black-eyed children.”

Clicking that link brings you to a brief video that looks like an amateur hour version of Unsolved Mysteries, which details the phenomenon and name drops a handful of conspiracy/cryptology websites.

Google “black eyed children” and you’re not much better off. The first handful of results belong to The Examiner and Mysterious Universe, and none of them exactly take what we’d call a fully skeptical view of the subject. Further down, there’s a laughably bad Journal of the Bizarre post that claims to “debunk” the black eyed children phenomenon with pseudo-biological and pragmatic arguments that sometimes seem about as far-fetched as there being black eyed children in the first place.

My conclusion? File black eyed children under the same heading as “bigfoot.” Believe it if you like, but realize that there is no evidence of their existence, just subjective testimony that ranges from reasonable to suspiciously fame-whoring. The real mystery, in my opinion, is why this topic made MSN‘s front page where it started to trend, fooling people into thinking that it’s real news.

Personally, I think this is some kind of viral marketing initiative for a new horror movie. I’ll do some investigating and get back to you.

Then again, if a couple of black eyed children come knocking at your door tonight, don’t invite them in, because Google says you’re not supposed to.

Here’s a video of some silly guy talking about black eyed children:

[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/nIb6fYENrZE” width=”560? height=”315?]

UPDATE: Hey look, a recent independent film made about black eyed children [Official site & report from The Columbian]. Are we vying for a broader US release, hm?