How much responsibility do the creators of literature, we authors have regarding how people choose to interpret and use our writings? A recent report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph reports on a trial in America of 2 12-year-old girls who are charged with the attempted murder of their friend (also aged 12) to please the slender man, a fictional character who is frequently portrayed as abducting children (see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10873464/Two-12-year-old-girls-charged-with-trying-to-murder-friend-to-please-Internet-demon.html). It is reported that the girls hoped that by killing their friend they could join the cult of Slender man and reside with him in his mantion.

The Slender Man first appeared on the Something Awful forums in 2008 being the creation of one Eric Nudson and as with so much on the web has gone viral since it’s first appearance, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man). Although 2008 appears to constitute the first modern appearance of Slender Man European and other mythologies are full of stories regarding such a character. Creepypasta Wiki is largely devoted to Slender Man as a modern creation (see http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man), however the entry acknowledges that the idea of Slender Man dates back for centuries, (for the mythology and culture surrounding Slender Man see http://theslenderman.wikia.com/wiki/Slender_Man_in_Mythology_and_Culture).

The horrific stabbing of a young girl has caused certain individuals to ask whether the presence of online stories regarding the exploits of Slender Man made (or contributed to) the decision of the 2 12-year-olds to attack their friend. It does appear from the reports of the trial that the girls where obsessed with the character of Slender Man and that they had convinced themselves that he was an actual (not fictional) being. I recall as a child being very interested in the description of the use of the guillotine In Dicken’s A Tale of 2 Cities. I recollect playing games with other children in which we pretended to chop off one another’s heads using that fearsome instrument of retribution. However neither I nor any of my playmates ever thought of using a real guillotine. It was, quite simply a game. Had we had access to a real axe I doubt that any of us would have thought to employ it to remove a fellow pupil’s head. For such a horrific incident to have occurred the person doing the axe wielding would have needed to be mentally unstable or to have “temporarily lost it”. Thankfully none of us had access to an axe or similar implement.

The world is full of stories (some of them fairy tales) regarding creatures (human and supernatural) who commit horrific acts of cruelty. Take, for example the story of Bluebeard or that of Hansel and Grettle. Few people call for the banning of such tales on the grounds that a disturbed child could misconstrue them as being real. The overwhelming majority of children pass through childhood without ever seriously considering cooking their peers (as in Hansel and Grettle). In short if we ban or censure Creepypasta Wiki we need to banish much loved fairy tales to the top shelves of book shops well out of the reach of little hands.

What happened in America is a tragedy for everyone concerned but censuring content is not the answer (apart, of course from parents exercising judgement as to what their children can view on and off line and internet forums requiring age verification prior to allowing access to mature content).