“It Seemed Necessary” to Kill Her Friend
On Saturday, May 31st, two 12-year-olds attempted to kill their best friend in a wooded park. By a miracle, this young friend who was stabbed 19 times was able to crawl to a road and retrieve help. One of those stab wounds nearly missed her heart.
Many would ask, “Why?” To answer this question, they were doing it in proxy of Slender Man to prove that he was real. For those of you who are not familiar with Slender Man, he is an alleged paranormal figure developed in the web forum called Something Awful by the creator Victor Surge (real name – Eric Knudsen).
Believers in the Slender Man tie his appearances with many other legends from around the world. Victor Surge, the creator, shared that many of his written imaginations were brought on by his favorite author Stephen King. Although he never intended his work to go viral, many fans added to his story and so began the supernatural entities of this horror story.
Slender Man is an evil character who is tall and thin and can morph into an octopus like creature. In the stories, he is passive aggressive, stalking prey using selective invisibility. He can cause Slender Sickness (paranoia, nightmares, hallucination). He can change appearance and control a person’s mind. With Sigma Radiation he can inflict mental torturing and memory loss. He is known for impaling his victims as well as hanging his victims from a tree and removing their organs. In the on-line game, Slender Man’s goal is to stop you from retrieving items throughout the mansion before the time runs out. To know if your time is running out, you will hear the footsteps of someone coming. The louder they are, the closer he is to finding you and in the end, murder you. This summer, Lions Gate Entertainment will be opening the now produced movie starring John Lithgow as the Slender Man in another version of the story.
Many teens play for hours finding it creepy and scary. In fact, nightmares are to be expected. The game originally was targeted for ages 15-24, but these very young 12 year-old children took this fictitious game and made it into reality. By being proxy for Slender Man, their intent was to murder their friend. They were under the impression that if they didn’t follow through with the murder, Slender Man would kill their families. The one teen said, “It seemed necessary because Slender Man can teleport and read minds.” She was already experiencing in her words, “Slender sickness and radiation.”
Do I believe that there is a big concern spiritually for our teens and children in regards to allowing them to play this game? Yes, there is. At any time when you allow or invite supernatural entities in your life, there is bound to be an open door for chaos, deception, fear, and even murder.
One of the parent’s knew about their daughter’s involvement with this game and how deep they were in it too, however, I don’t believe they ever expected results like this from a game. This will lie heavily on the parents’ hearts and grieve them for a long time. Thankfully the victim will have a chance to live because of the immediate help she received. But how many others will fall victim in which death will be imminent.
Although parents are the ones who should oversee and be responsible in what their kids and teens watch and do, creators of supernatural entity type videos and games should also share in that responsibility in this issue. We have seen the rise of violence among youth through the avenues of video and computer gaming, but it was only a matter of time in which we would see a case such as this.
Do I believe that these girls deserve to be in jail for up to the next 65 years? No. They need prayer and psychiatric help to undo the mind control from this game and help them learn the difference between reality and fantasy. There are other ways to pay for this crime. Nothing good would come from them if they sit in a jail cell and only be more vulnerable to a hardened heart. I truly am saddened for these families who have been affected deeply from this event.
So what can we learn from this tragedy?
Be wise. Don’t expect teens and kids to understand the dangers of what is out there in the cyber world.
Question them. Don’t be naïve to think they comprehend the difference of reality and pretend. Not all kids think the same way.
Get Educated. Spend time on the internet to find out what your teens and kids are into on-line and videos games. You might be surprised at some of the things they are into that would give you grave concern.
Talk to other parents. Just because your kids aren’t playing these games doesn’t mean that other parent’s aren’t letting them. You’d be amazed as to how many parents don’t pay attention to what their kids are doing or watching or playing.
Pray. There is an all-out spiritual war on our children to demoralize, corrupt and brainwash their minds. We must do whatever is necessary to protect them at all costs. As parents, it is our responsibility to cover them in prayer and keep out anything that would hurt them spiritually, mentally, and physically.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
When our kids were in growing up and in school, we only had one computer with internet-it was in the living room where we, the parents, knew what our kids were doing, what web site they might be into. They did not get their own computers until they graduated from high school and went off to college. My husband and I felt this was the way it should be to protect our children from the harm the internet can bring. They had a christian upbringing, we taught them morals, how to think for themselves and the right from wrong. And more important, to take responsibility for their wrongs. My husband and I have been married for 32 years, our older two children are married with children and our youngest is starting his masters program with hopes to get a doctorate! It wasn’t always easy, but when the children leave the nest and they do well for themselves all you can do is say, “Thank you God for being there.”
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
You are absolutely right. I think that is the right way to go but unfortunately even in the best of situations and knowing right from wrong, our kids can wander and get encouraged to do something by peer pressure. We have to be even more proactive with our kids than ever before in this generation. They will eventually thank us for it in the end. And I do know of teens who wished that their parents cared enough for them to intervene and stop things before they got out of control. As much as they may give us flack for being controlling, they know without a doubt we love them and thank us later on for being there.
Okay, I will need to disagree somewhat, since I am a writer and also a consumer of literature. The horror genre has two purposes. 1-To say that evil is real. 2-To say that the proper response to evil is horror. These are very legitimate, and even theologically sound purposes. Stephen King is a Christian. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/02/the-gospel-of-stephen-king/ Other Christians who write about evil and horror include writers such as Tolkein, Koontz, and the person who wrote “the Exorcist” (written explicitly to warn that evil is real and the only hope is in God). Slender Man is simply a typical evil creature, intended to scare people. People are supposed to want to “run away” from the Slender Man, not “join” him or “murder” for him!
So, is the problem horror fiction? No. Is the problem video games? No. The problem is two girls who saw a depiction of evil and did NOT feel horror. In fact, they wanted to go live with the creature and kill for him. So, it is not horror that is the problem, it is LACK of horror. I hope that makes sense.
How do we defend against children loving evil instead of being scared by it? The only way is to teach our children to actively love good and hate evil. This can only be accomplished through the work of God in their hearts. Anyone who does not love God will soon love evil. If they do not stab their friend, they will simply choose more socially acceptable ways to love evil. Perhaps it will be working for the pro-choice community. Perhaps it will be lying and cheating. But the love for evil will grow. Slender Man is nothing, and the good news is that most kids have enough common grace to see that evil is evil. Losing that horror is the thing we must prevent.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Thank you for your post and bringing up some very interesting dialogue. I need to clarify that I was not coming against Stephen King but only stating that the writer of the Slender Man had a fascination to his short stories. That writer can interpret his stories any way he chooses, even if it is towards the “evil” side. I also love good literature as well and read plenty of scary stories as well as mysteries and so forth. But we are not talking about this type of writing either. In fact, the Slender Man doesn’t even talk so there isn’t even an issue about what was said.
I also agree that evil is real and the only hope is God. I do disagree about the Slender Man only encouraging people to run away. When in fact, he is making a game of it by murdering them. He finds his pleasure and release in chasing the weak and hurting them. If you have a child who finds the game as fun and they are not equipped to understand the consequences of hurting someone, then this is an issue. A 12-year-old who plays these games hours at a time for months will become addicted and eventually feel like they are a part of it. They will eat, sleep and live this addiction. Their brains are not completely capable to differentiate at that point of addiction what is reality and what is fantasy. We are not talking about reading books that start and end after so many pages. We are talking about something that is interactive and brain changing. There are many studies on this. As to violence of video games, there are plenty of good video games, but unfortunately there are plenty of bad – http://gjs.appstate.edu/media-coverage-crime-and-criminal-justice/violence-video-games (this link explains the seriousness of what violent video games does to a child which mainly states what repetitive gaming and watching of violence does to a child’s behavior).
I understood your line about “lack” of horror. But again, that just reaffirms what I just said. After a while of playing this game, they have no empathy, to the point that they don’t feel that “horror”.
To Slender Man is nothing I feel is being naive. He is a character who promotes death. That is something that every person should be concerned about. I think the word horror is an injustice to what is really the issue. It is losing compassion for others, losing love for one another, losing care and concern for mankind whom God created that really is the heart of this story. These girl’s lives will never be the same. All because they got addicted to Slender Man and couldn’t discern reality. Their behaviors changed because of Slender Man. Their thought processes changed because of Slender Man. And now their lives will be ruined because of Slender Man.