Finally, Something Juicy To Talk About!

Leave it to the media to blow a situation out of the water. There is an article today about a missed 14 year old girl was found in a campground with a 27 year old man. They both met over WoW, he drove to pick her up, and took her to the campground.

First and foremost, I think all child abductors are skum. With that said, I still do not believe it is right to charge this man with kidnapping when the article clearly says that, "Saddie "Elaine" Julian, 14, of Boise was believed to have run away with Morgan Douglas Jones, 27, a man she met over the Internet." The key note is "run away with", not abducted or kidnapped. Leave it to US law to try to protect everyone; no matter the circumstance.

Of course, WoW Insider was right on the case with none other than Adam Holisky (it seems like everytime I disagree with WoW Insider, it is when he posts...). Adam writes, "I am amazed at some of the creeps who play this game, and Morgon Jones definitely falls into that category. 27 years old and running off with a 14 year old girl he met through the game. It's time for him to get outside and enjoy life while he still can, since hopefully there'll be some good ol' prison time coming his way."

Innocent until proven guilty, in my opinion. Who are we to judge someone's character by a news report?

Badger, a WoW Insider reader, made a comment directed at Adam indicating the flaws in his article and the news report.

"Adam,

First off, I love how both of the other Blog posts to which you linked were your own, and the reference to "commenters" was a parenthetical side-note. If you're looking for validation, look to a third-party, not yourself.

Second: As you're not directly involved in the case, you can't tell from this article whether: (a) the girl went willingly rather than being kidnapped (despite the charges); (b) the parents gave enough of a shit to try and stop her or to try and monitor her activity in-game when she was already below the advised age for playing *and* using the Voice Chat system; or (c) the guy responsible is in need of serious psychiatric and psychological help, unable to draw the line between responsible and irresponsible behavior. Maybe *his* parents didn't give enough of a shit to raise him to see the distinction.

Personally, my gut tells me the same thing yours does - that the guy is a lecherous scumbag - but nobody outside of the affected family and the two parties involved in the "kidnapping" case knows that for sure, so please don't make snap judgments on cases like this (even if they're probably correct). Rise above the standard for typical media (like the TV station that posted this article) and wait for all the facts to come in."

This just supports my theory even more. A: It was never said she was forced to go with him and actually, the article said that she "ran away" with him. B: Some cases of runaways stem off of a fight with parents or disagreements. Maybe they should have spent more time monitoring her. And C: Yeah, the guy was an idiot to go along with it anyway. If he had half a brain, he'd known that the law indicates this a kidnapping (even though, ethically, it wasn't).

I don't believe he should get jail time. However, I do think he should be punished in some way. Maybe a hefty fine or some psychological revaluations if it comes down to that. Maybe he does have some problems up there. Then again, who am I to judge? For all I know, he's perfectly fine.

I guess the two morals are:
1) Don't go running off with underage people; no matter what.
And 2) Don't push an article that is flawed and doesn't have their facts straight.