Slender Man Attack: 13-Year-Old Stabs Mother After Obsessing With Internet Legend

Slender Man is being blamed for a new attack in which a 13-year-old girl stabbed her mother after becoming obsessed with the internet legend.

Last week in Wisconsin, two 12-year-old girls stabbed a friend 19 times in order to please the fictional monster, which was created on an internet forum. The attack raised alarms for many who saw danger in children who could not separate so-called Internet Culture from reality.

Now there is a new Slender Man attack, after a girl in Ohio reportedly attacked her mother after obsessing over the legend.

“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,” the mother told the station. “She was someone else during the attack.”

The mother suffered a stab wound to her back, while the daughter faces charges as a juvenile.

The second Slender Man attack appears similar to the near-fatal attack from last week.

“We found things that she had written and she made reference to Slender Man. She also made references to killing,” the mother said. “She even created a world for Slender Man in the game Minecraft.”

The spate of attacks have prompted a response from Eric Knudsen, an administrator at creepypasta.wikia.com, creator of the Slender Man character.

Knudsen said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy in Wisconsin, adding that he felt sympathy for the families affected.

He said:

“First and most importantly, my condolences go out to all the families involved. I cannot even imagine how painful and confusing and awful this has to be for them. I don’t have children, but I can imagine how my mother would feel if something like this happened to me, and it absolutely breaks my heart to even consider her having to go through that. The families of the young ladies who committed this crime also have my heart going out to them – I know this can’t be easy for them as well, and I’m sure they’ll have to deal with mistargeted backlash and anger even while they try to get through such a trying time themselves. So when I say that I extend my deepest sympathies and my prayers to those affected, I hope that you understand that I mean it. I know that words can seem hollow or come off as mere lip-service to the cynical, but it’s the truth.”

But many remain worried by the Slender Man attacks, and experts say parents need to pay closer attention to what their kids are doing online.

“This is a tragic story about our vulnerability to a medium where the lines between what’s real and what’s a game are blurred,” said Sherry Turkle, a psychologist specializing in the internet, said about last week’s Slender Man attack. “We’re not providing the guidance for these two 12-year-olds to sort out [fact from fiction] when a website tells them to kill someone.”