Another Slender Man Stabbing In Ohio Obviously Means Kids Can’t Like Scary Stuff

Slenderman Stabbing OhioAn Ohio mother has come forward following the vicious attack of a young girl by two of her friends who stated they were inspired by the Internet fictional creation Slender Man to stay that she believes Slender Man also inspired her own daughter to attack her with a knife. The video, which you can watch here, has the mother explaining how her own daughter may have been influenced by the mythology of Slender Man:

She said her 13-year-old daughter was obsessed with the fictional character Slender Man.

”She was someone else during that attack,” the mother said.

Her daughter allegedly attacked her with a knife in the kitchen of their home.

The daughter is in the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.

The mother said her daughter has mental health issues but that she never imagined anything like this would happen.

”I came home one night from work and she was in the kitchen waiting for me and she was wearing a mask, a white mask,” she said.

The mother said her daughter’s writings and drawings have always been dark. They referenced demons, being insane and falling into darkness.

Both the creator of Slender Man, Eric Knudsen and Creepypasta administrator David Morales have released statements regarding the Wisconsin case:

“I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act,” Knudsen said in a statement released by spokeswoman Sue Procko.

Creepypasta administrator David Morales said the site clearly states the stories there are fiction and its rules bar use by anyone under 13.

“We are not teaching children to believe in a fictional monster, nor are we teaching them to be violent,” Morales wrote in an email.

 

Growing up, I was a huge fan of scary stuff. I loved scary movies, and television shows like Tales from The Darkside and The Twilight Zone and one of my most beloved books was a giant Alfred Hitchcock anthology I dragged around with me that belonged to my parents. I dressed up as The Creature From The Black Lagoon for Halloween when I was about five-years-old and I had a huge crush on Vincent Price. I never wanted to stab anyone.

These recent associations between violent crimes and Slender Man stories and internet-spawned mythology make me feel awful for the victims and the families involved. But as a mom who grew up loving scary things and as an adult who still enjoys scary stories and books and movies I also find it scary that a fictional character is being blamed for what are obviously cases of mental illness and kids who are troubled. It sort of reminds me of the whole heavy metal and video games being blamed for violence amongst young people. I do think parents need to be aware of what their kids are reading and watching and have dialogues with them about the differences between real and make-believe, but I also think that kids should be allowed to enjoy scary things, depending on their age level and whether or not they enjoy these things, without some sort of mass hysteria that any kid who enjoys Slender Man or the thousands of other spooky stories out there is capable of violence.

There are certain things I don’t let my kids watch. I don’t let them watch things that fall under the torture porn label of Saw or the Hostel movies, because as an adult who has watched these things I don’t feel like the movies offer much besides gore. And not even really sort of eye-candy-esque gore, like you can see in Italian horror movies from the likes of Argento or Bava, but even in those cases I don’t want my kids seeing those until they are much older. But have I introduced my teenager to the Evil Dead movies and shown him  The Shining or suggested he watch other things I find creepy or scary? Totally. Do I dissuade my nine-year-old from reading and re-reading her beloved copy of Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark? No way. Being scared is fun.

And kids should be allowed to have that fun, without everyone thinking that kids who enjoy these things have a tendency towards violence or believing that an internet-spawned fictional character will make un-troubled kids start stabbing people.

(Image: creepypasta wiki)

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