Wisconsin's Real Life Horror Story

Whether or not you are an avid news reader or watcher, it's hard not to hear about things such as the Wisconsin stabbing. Just in case you haven't used the internet in the past week, there were two 12-year old girls that stabbed their friend in the woods 19 times. Their reasoning? They were reading a website called "Creepypasta" and were convinced they would become part of the Slender Man clan if they performed this act. I'm sorry...what?

I've never heard a story like this one, about two girls so young doing something so awful and not even being sorry for it. They claim to have no sympathy! Of course their mental health is in question at this point, but what could have been so convincing on this website that they would go to such lengths? The Creepypasta website is full of strange photos, stories, and urban legends according to the BuzzFeed article, and it has a lot of information about the Slender Man. He is a modern monster that has been placed in old photos with children, and supposedly afterwords the children would disappear. Supposedly when someone encounters the Slender Man, they go crazy. As appealing as he sounds already, he also is extremely tall and thin, and he has no face. Does it sound like it was worth it yet?



There are a lot of fingers to point at the cause of this incident, the obvious one being the website where the girls found their stories. The story and website creators have commented, but their statements will mean nothing to parents who are trying to protect their children from those type of sites. Besides the website for posting such cruel information and stories that are so easily available to kids, where were these girl's parents? If there was some question of mental illness, why would they not be monitoring their access to knives? Let alone their internet use or whereabouts? Even if they didn't know the seriousness of the girls minds, they should still be paying attention to what their children are doing as a safety precaution for everyone.

It's impossible to completely stop websites like Creepypasta from existing. But it's not impossible to regulate who uses it and how much, and it's also possible to stop incidents like this one occurring. What do you think is to blame? The girls are being tried as adults, so it seems like they will be getting the punishment they deserve. But also..is it entirely their fault? All I know is I won't be seeking out Creepypasta or the Slender Man anytime soon.