Beware the Slenderman Page #3

efficient, universal,

worldwide medium

for memes to spread.

That'll never catch on.

No doubt.

There may be

some memes that spread

like a very rapid epidemic

and then die away.

But others may have

strong persistence.

People are captivated

by Slenderman

and wish to pass on images

or to modify images of him.

This horrifying story

of two girls who thought

that it was their duty to

Slenderman to go and kill someone.

Well, that's what I call power.

That's very substantial power,

very horrific power.

- Unconsciously,

- Slenderman stems

from a tradition that...

that goes way, way back.

To a great extent, the Brothers

Grimm collected tales that deal

with what I would call

universal human struggles

that we continue to have today.

I think that's

one of the reasons

why people are

responding to this tale,

and they're telling

their own versions,

their own horror stories

about what is happening

in the world today.

Slenderman is

a tale about a character,

a strange weird character,

who may feed upon children.

It made me think of a legend

that Jacob

and Wilhelm Grimm collected

called "The Pied Piper

of Hamelin."

Many years ago a town was

being devastated by rats...

in the gutters...

on the streets...

in the cellars.

The Pied Piper comes

out of nowhere.

And he's a very odd,

strange-looking person,

but he has a flute

or some type of pipe

that he plays.

The man said, "If you want me to get

rid of the rats, you must pay me."

So they said, "Yes,

as much as you want

if you can get rid

of the rats."

The Piper began

blowing on the pipe.

The rats began following.

The Piper had all the rats

jump into the river.

But the mayor and the

councilmen cheat him.

"And the Piper said," You know,

"there are other

tunes I can pipe

"and ways that I can repay you

in a way that

you will never forget."

So the Piper took

his pipe to his lips again

and he began piping.

The people froze, but the

children followed him.

There was an opening,

a sudden opening

in the mountain.

And all the children headed

toward this opening.

And as the last one entered,

the mountain closed,

and the Piper

went inside as well.

Depending on the times and the

person who is telling their version

of "The Pied Piper,"

he can be many different things.

So he is

a very mysterious figure.

We don't know

whether he's evil or good.

We don't know whether he's going

to do anything to these children.

The children never return.

Nobody ever hears about them.

But the Pied Piper does live on.

Umm...

It's almost like she was living a

whole nother life inside her head

that we just...

that we just didn't know about.

It's hard with kids because...

they don't necessarily

know how to differentiate

between fantasy

and reality to begin with.

So, it's just hard to know...

where... where to draw the line.

Where does that become...

abnormal?

So even though, you know,

looking back,

maybe there were some signs.

It's everything in retrospect.

It's been two months

to the day on the calendar

that she's been in Washington

County Juvenile Detention Center.

The first day was rough.

You know, you get in there...

you have to learn all your check-in

procedures and everything.

You know, you get back there, and

you don't know what to expect.

There's you, there's a pane of

glass with metal bars behind it,

and then...

there's our daughter.

That's how it works.

This is the first time

we are trying this.

We got him something.

He doesn't know yet.

It's a little mouse.

You can see him in there.

You ready?

It's the circle of life, okay?

Right, Cole?

Yep.

It's just like "The

Lion King." Yeah.

Let's see how he reacts.

It's the same color as the...

as the bathtub.

Look, baby.

Look, baby, look.

See if he notices it.

My voice is going to take you

to a very calm

and peaceful place.

So this part,

striking into any soft

tissue in the body...

the eyes, the cheeks,

cut right through the blood

and air vessels into the throat,

get it in and out,

in and out, in and out.

Meow, meow, meow!

So with the first one,

why do you think

the pig passed out

when the kitten was put on it?

He's playing with it.

Dog goes woof, cat

goes meow, bird goes...

Ah! Why do you

stick a baby

in the blender feet first?

So you can see

the expression on it's face.

Shh.

I don't know if I should say,

"I hope you enjoyed it,"

but there's the circle

of life for you.

Talk to you later.

Thanks for watching.

Ever since she got that iPad,

she liked to spend a lot of private

time up in her room and...

she watched a lot

of things that were...

funny to her.

Nothing that was gross,

or depressing,

and emotionally degrading...

She liked...

that iPad just gave her a way

kind of not to...

to socialize with the family.

And I totally...

regret the iPad.

Anissa showed me a picture once.

She was in her bedroom,

and I went up to see what she

was doing, and I looked.

It was a picture

of this Slenderman character

and Jack Skellington.

At the time, it doesn't seem to

be anything inherently dangerous.

I had no inklings that I would

need to research this further.

The iPads will be moving

into elementary school levels

this year.

So, at least, our fifth-grade son is

going to be coming home with one.

His own.

So this is the yearbook

from Anissa's fifth grade year.

And this is what Anissa wrote.

It says, "You're like

a second dad to me."

So that was really sweet.

It's kind of tough

looking back on it,

'cause if she felt that strong,

you know, just...

maybe I could have done

something else.

Anissa was definitely one of

the biggest outliers I've had

just because she had

no solid connections

with other

4th and 5th-graders.

Anissa would definitely cry once every

couple weeks, I would want to say.

Mostly about... kids

being mean to her at school.

She wouldn't be able to contain

herself in front of the whole class,

and sometimes

she would just cry.

So other kids

were aware of her...

emotions, and being upset.

And there's times she would

come in from lunch/recess

and cry about

not having friends.

I've guessed that Anissa made

a connection with Morgan

and was happy that they

both were into Slenderman,

was happy that

she made a new friend,

shared a connection,

shared interest,

and it may have spiraled

out of control from there.

You couldn't set up

a better system to fail

In terms of "No one

at school likes you",

"but here's this

open-ended monster

who will embrace you."

The worst time

to be socially isolated

is the time when your brain and

body are begging for camaraderie,

for kinship,

which is adolescence.

It's the hardest time

to be alone.

I think in the absence

of social contact,

the Internet can sometimes serve

as a peer in a way,

or a peer group.

Those two girls in a tight-knit

group of eight friends,

I don't think

this would've happened,

because they wouldn't have only

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