12-year-olds Stab Classmate for "Slender Man"

Okay guys, before we make parallels to a certain show with this story,

We have to remember that this is a scary and serious one. So I'll tread carefully with this.

Two 12-year-old girls from Waukesa, Wisconsin, stabbed their good friend and almost killed her. But the reason wasn't jealousy, or anger, or a general rift in their friendship. It was because they were told to do the dirty deed by...the Slender Man. What is the Slender Man?

It is an urban legend/myth created on the Internet by Eric Knudsen in 2009. It first appeared in this picture

and has sadly since become a cult figure all across the WWW. It usually appears in black and white photographs, hiding in the woods and lurks in the shadows, watching innocent ordinary children playing and having fun. It has no face, is impossibly tall and wears a black suit. One one sees it, and follows him,
Many people have created photos with the Slender Man either hiding in the woods or walking with a child hand-in-hand.

I've never heard of this before the Gravity Falls reference, but it all came full-circle when I tweeted this on my personal Twitter page with the eerie similarities

I hope Dipper doesn't go to murder. http://t.co/ZQZGcXlJ7q http://t.co/8hbI2EpXQb pic.twitter.com/B9IUnj2uJQ

— Andrew Pollard (@APollard36) June 3, 2014

and then later watched Inside Edition last night. Here's their report from Wednesday's show about the reactions from one of the culprits' family.

Post by Maroon Mondays.

Now here's where the story comes in: Two girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, Ask their friend to come to a sleepover with them. What she didn't know is that they had a plan for her. Hours after everything has settled down, the two took the girl to a local park for hide-and-seek. Then, when the three reached the park, it happened. While the other holds her down, One of them stabbed her 19 times in the arms, legs and torso. The victim was later taken to the woods and left to die. She later survived when a jogger spotted her nearby and called police.

They were later arrested and charged with attempted murder and might receive 60 years in prison. In court, one of the two, Geyser, was quoted by cops as saying "stabby, stab, stab" to describe what they did. "It was weird that I didn't feel remorse," she allegedly said. The other, Weier, said, "The bad part of me wanted her to die, the good part of me wanted her to live". That explains how the victim barely survived. It was later revealed they planned this crime for months.

This is one sad story. What makes this sad is three things:
1-They're kids
2-They spend a lot of time on the Internet, and
3-They've not only heard of the Slender Man, they believe it is real and actually did a crime because of what they believe it told them.

It disgusts me that random people take fictitious things to heart and use them to commit murder, arson, and other kinds of violence. Why do thing like this happen?
This makes me fearful of my own country and it citizens. Believing what you want to believe can get you into serious crap. Also, I'm 20 and I've never heard of the Slender Man, while many children around the world in the same age range as these girls know what it is. If that doesn't tell you that they can also believe in the Slender Man and may do the same things these two did, then I don't know what does. We as adults should be aware of what children look at online, and filter everything they do.
This is inexcusable and just plain sad.