They may have noticed something was “off”, but it’s a far cry from “my child is acting a bit weird” to “I think my child is going to stab another girl and drag her 300 miles into the woods to appease a spooky internet monster cum god.” I mean, it’s possible they were ignoring their kids torturing small animals for fun, but I find it plausible that they didn’t even fathom there was anything wrong with them that was worth intervening over.
These kids *say they *thought Slenderman was real. Same kids who had a variety of back-up plans.
the website has set up a victim fund for medical bills.
I don’t know what the best system is. I haven’t a clue as to how to treat a pair of 12 year olds who would do something like this. I’m not sure locking them in an asylum for the criminally insane is any better or worse than an adult prison (though likely they’d end up in a juvie prison and transfered to an adult prison at 18 if sentenced as an adult). There is no one right solution for handling children like this.
I used to live in Waukesha.
I went to grade school there.
This is a hellava shock.
The juvenile justice system isn’t really set up to handle serious crimes, because kids so rarely engage in them. Doesn’t mean they should be tried as adults.
My kids heard of Slenderman a while back - at school, in the playground. Something like this is not a websites fault.
So are you proposing a flat age limit – 18 (or some other age), below which you cannot be charged as an adult?
According to this article today (June 4), that’s exactly what Wisconsin has already done:
They’re lucky the victim is still alive. It makes a big difference in the time they’ll serve. I bet they’ll be released before they are 25 or 30.
Yes, that then applies regardless of the nature of crime. I see no logic in claiming that someone can be tried as an adult for one type of wrongdoing but not for another.
It isn’t a particularly outlandish statement, plenty of other countries around the world make that distinction.
I too support a flat age at which someone must be tried as an adult. Probably 16. Maybe 15. But I also think that whatever age that is chosen should also be the age of majority for all other legal rights. It’s hypocritical to say that you have the mental capacity to be guilty of murder and tried as an adult, but not the capacity to understand a legal contract and enter it, or drink a beer or smoke a cigarette or vote.
Strongly disagree, and I’ve been a huge creepypasta fan for years.
You said that creepypasta is a genre, and that’s the whole point. Genres, by definition, are narrower categories than non-genre. Horror stuff has always been pretty niche, beloved by its fans but ignored by many many more (and actively disliked by a sizable population).
Grumpy cat isn’t genre. It’s a silly meme that has widespread appeal and doesn’t rely on complicated or obscure (or polarizing or controversial) knowledge to be funny. Does creepypasta have more “range” than grumpy cat? Sure. But it also has a much narrower range of appeal.
Whelp, apparently there was a thread on /b/ that found the address of the girls and were organizing a campaign to send letters to the parents of the perpetrators pretending to be from a Slender Man worshiping cult. The problem is, many people from /b/ actually tend to follow through on their stupid fucking ideas.
Here’s hoping the fact that the thread got deleted allows this to blow over.
Well, there you go, Ignorance fought.
When I opened this thread I thought it would be something about food. I’ve never heard of creepy pasta or slenderman and I have a number of 20 somethings on Facebook who inadvertently keep me up to date with all sorts of stuff.
I’m not sure if it’s a national culture thing or what.
I was aware of the lolcats, cheeseburger and grumpy cat but that was old years ago, I haven’t looked at that stuff for years.
Slender Man is certainly a cultural phenomenon you’ve heard of or you haven’t, Creepypasta is just a neologism for “free, online short horror story”, so even if you haven’t heard the term it’s probably not really news.
Has it been definitively ruled out that Slenderman was behind all this?
Of course. Slenderman doesn’t demand blood sacrifices, he just makes people disappear without a trace. Duh.
Candyman, Candyman, can
Yes, he has a confirmed alibi burning down an elementary school in Calgary. Splendorman still at large.
For whatever reason, I picture Splendidman as British. Also, he may or may not have a top hat and a monocle.