by Chris Matyszczyk
* Font size
* Print
* E-mail
* Share
* 26 comments
* Yahoo! Buzz
Share
This is not your average Danielle Steel tale. But it is one where the
reported facts would surely make Nabokov want to immediately finger
his keyboard.
It begins with a simple, everyday event: a 16-year-old Canadian boy
met an older woman online while playing World of Warcraft.
The Toronto Globe and Mail described in some detail how the youth from
Barrie, Ontario, enjoyed an online relationship with a 42-year-old
mother of four from Houston. In our modern, socially entangled world,
these things happen.
What perhaps happens slightly less often is everything that reportedly
followed. Including the rather difficult ending.
The teen's parents reportedly had known about this relationship for
more than a year, but believed that their son would not divulge any
personal information to his online friend. However, on December 29,
the woman traveled to Ontario to see the boy, who reportedly asked his
parents if it'd be OK for him to go and see her at a nearby hotel.
Can't see the attraction, myself.
(Credit: CC Twon)
It should be said at this point that the Globe and Mail described how
the boy is a World of Warcraft addict whose parents had fought hard to
curb his habit. They had taken away his computer and only restored
this privilege on the advice of a psychologist.
When the boy asked his parents for permission to have a play date, his
parents said no. At 2 a.m., he reportedly slipped out of his house and
went to see her anyway. He was missing for two days. Canadian police
found him after a tip-off. Neither he nor the woman reportedly
expressed anything approaching regret.
Still, no Canadian laws were broken.
Here is the third act. The woman traveled back to Houston. On arriving
at Bush Intercontinental Airport, she was, according to the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, arrested. She has been charged with two
counts of online solicitation of a minor and one count of child
enticement.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the age of consent in Canada is 16. The
age of consent in Texas is 17. And the teen had reportedly told the
woman he was 20.
I would now like to go on an expedition with any reader who has a GPS
of sufficient fine tuning to point me in the direction of the moral
high ground in this story.
Who amongst you casts the stone that that the boy's parents didn't try
hard enough? Who amongst you casts for the woman to receive
punishment? And who, perhaps, wonders how different jurisdictions
reach a conclusion about what age it is appropriate to do certain
things and not others?