[LONG]Girls claim Slender Man is real, stab classmate 19 times

And then an administrator from the CreepyPastaWiki came out to say something too.

but damn...this is one hell of an article...

SOURCE

 

I am aware of the Slenderman mythos and generally prefer to stay away from them. It's not that I don't find them insanely creative because they are. I applaud whoever came up with them. However, it's not my cup of tea.

I want to applaud the Admin of the Creepypasta Wiki though. Because he's right with how we treat those with mental illnesses. We've come a long way from abandoning them on doorsteps to asylums and icepick lobotomies but we've got a long way to go if we're still shunning these individuals.

And he's also right in saying that it wasn't the character/literature that should be the focus of this. Creepypasta presents everything as 100% fiction. It's a bit like the Colombine shooting and the media blaming everything from the music they listened to to the way the shooters dressed rather than the core of the issue.

Though I can agree that parents should know what their children are doing online. Especially when they're this young. Blocking certain sites is an option. Though I question if most parents know sites like the Creepypasta Wiki even exist.

 

What really terrifies me the most is how much of an influence Slenderman had over the girls. For years, there have been debates about shootings and massacres that tie in with entertainment media. The majority found that those accusations are nothing but blind accusations. With this story in full force, it's going to sway some people.

Alright maybe the girls weren't right in the head. That doesn't change how this is portrayed. You can take the biggest mentally unstable person in the world and give them a random video to watch or a game to play with some violence in it. He then goes on a rampage and attacks people. Even if the truth was there for people to understand he was very unstable mentally, they'll still focus on the video or game because in the end, all the people care about is the ignition of that action. For example, look at the elementary school shooting at Sandy Hook last year. Did they really go into thought of him not being right in the head? Somewhat, but the majority turned their attention on what he did prior to his actions. "Oh he played Mass Effect 3 so that must mean that game is the real reason for his actions." It's more of an excuse rather than a fact of any sort.

I really applaud the admin on coming out and addressing this problem. He really knows what and how our society works when it comes to these types of situations. I, myself, am not a fan of creepypastas (mostly because I'm a wimp and can't take scary stories D: ) but that's not gonna make me wanna go into a cult or any of that sort of stuff.

I send my condolences and heart out to the families affected by this event.

 

If anyone is curious, the Creepypasta Wiki is running a fundraiser for the victim's family.

That said, I do agree that it is too simplistic to point at Slender Man, the Creepypasta Wiki, and the internet in general and blame them for this awful tragedy. I think it's also a bit too simplistic and unfair to say that these girls are absolutely suffering from "mental illness" as that's a pretty big blanket term / generalization. Of course someone has to be unstable in some way to brutally stab a friend of theirs, and I wish honestly that these girls were receiving the help they need rather than being thrown in prison (though they have not yet gone to trial and I can't imagine a jury is going to sentence 12 year olds to lifetime in prison). There are a lot of places we can point blame -- how we handle (or don't, as it were) mental illness in this country, the parents' negligence, the internet -- all with varying levels of legitimacy. Right now though I just feel awfully sorry for the poor girl and her family & wish her a fast recovery.

 

I think it's wrong to implicate Slender Man, Creepypasta or the internet at all in this sort of incident. Like the shooting a few weeks back, people have been blaming the misogynistic culture as the reason for the incident. Blaming these instances on either of these things is incorrect to me. These are outlets for their anger, their mental ideas, something that clicks with them. It could've easily been any other sort of outlet, like I mentioned in the misogynistic thread, such as an attack against the government, parents, a crush, who or whatever for any reason they reasoned was right, or blamed on the attack because God told them, or the aliens did.
Typically this sort of attack in this context is a result of a schizophrenic disorder, since these girls couldn't distinguish between fiction and reality. Though two girls with a similar psychosis meeting is rare, and likely the dominate of the two is the one to have it, or neither may and another psychosis may be the case. In any case, the extremely likely they have some mental issues and it has led them to need an outlet for their warped views.

Really, it's an unfortunate combination of factors and events that led to this. It has happened, will happen again, and we should be looking on how to more effectively predict or deal with these situations as a culture. We can't simply ban Slender Man, or the internet, or whatever these type of people claim is what made them do it, it's obviously not the issue, this whole transference of responsibility for their actions, but we should be cautious in the obsessions and content people get themselves deeply involved in.

 

I actually follow a lot of Creepy Pasta narrators, so I heard about this early on yesterday. And actually, it reminded me of a similar story in Japan from several years ago that people went crazy for. A young elementary school girl stabbed her friend to death at the school, and the police found that she frequented a horror-style site called "The Red Room".

I feel that the two do deserve to be tried as adults though, and I know that's unpopular. Yes, they're minors, but they made a very adult decision and knew what they were doing. These two girls won't be able to live normal lives outside of the jail system if they're able to get away with it.

I'm just glad that the young girl who was stabbed is stable and safe from harm. It's going to be a long road to recovery, but if she's able to keep going after this much, I feel that she could do it. There's a charity being ran by Creepy Pasta Narrators who are trying to help the young girl.

http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/narrators-u-nighted/186764