Five photos of smartschoolboy9 have sparked a divisive new theory: what if he’s been wearing a mask, rather than just makeup?
At the end of August, Nick Crowley released his disturbing deep dive: ‘smartschoolboy9: An Internet Rabbit Hole’, a mini-documentary exploring the rumors and allegations surrounding an alleged predator in the UK.
The creepy YouTube doc revolves around a man believed to be named David Alter (although this hasn’t been confirmed, with some believing his name is David London), who’s been accused of running a network of insidious, fake accounts on Instagram with warped, unsettling, and even explicit photos of children.
On his main account (which has since been taken down), he dressed as a child in a tight school uniform and seemingly chased a real-life child in one video.
As people hunt for clues (which may have resulted in the first smartschoolboy9 sighting), some users in the case’s subreddit believe he may have been wearing a mask.
With five different photos, manta-miku noted how the top half of smartschoolboy9’s face appears to be a different shade to the bottom half, and in another clip, a white censor bar appears under his chin, perhaps hiding “visible mask lines.”
In the third photo, the user points out the difference between his top and bottom set of teeth: his upper front teeth appear to be fake, while his bottom teeth look real. “I also think that the reason you never see his mouth closed is because it’s a mask,” they wrote.
“He always has his mouth open because the mask mouth doesn’t close. Also, he could always show his tongue to hide potentially showing his real face through the mouth.”
In the last photo, which appears to have been taken at night, the alleged mask appears to “peel up at the nose bridge.”
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Some users agree with the theory, with one writing: “Yeah I’m sure too that it’s a mask. Last time I saw someone mention it he got downvoted to hell and people called him stupid and how wrong he was. As if it’s the biggest reach in history that he’s wearing a mask, c’mon it’s almost painfully obvious.”
“Wait there are seriously people who can’t tell he’s wearing a mask? It’s obviously some fetish gimp mask,” a second commented. “I think it’s most definitely some sort of mask, probably to cover dark beard shadows and to hide his identity,” a third wrote.
Others aren’t convinced. “I think it’s just the top teeth that are fake, I mean that much is obvious. They are pushing that part of the face upward,” one user speculated.
“I don’t think it’s a mask, the videos are edited/ have a filter to make his mouth bigger, his mouth is open because he’s weird,” another wrote. “I definitely think it’s his real fave with makeup. His mouth moves too much for it to be a mask,” a third argued.
The issue is the images are no longer available, as the smartschoolboy9 Reddit page has since been banned due to issues with harassment.
While people have claimed that the man behind smartschoolboy9 is being investigated, South Yorkshire Police told Dexerto: “We can neither confirm nor deny the name of a person who may or may not be or have been the subject of a South Yorkshire Police investigation.”
Read our full breakdown of the smartschoolboy9 investigation so far. You can also find other new true crime documentaries to watch this month, and you should check out Crowley’s Pipergate documentary too.
