Minecraft:Bad Seed, Bad Tree, Bad Apples.
I think everyone can agree on some level or another that Minecraft as a game and a concept is extremely fun. It affords the young creative mind an outlet and the exceedingly bored (of which I am one) a place to spend time messing around with insane and spontaneous ideas. In some schools and colleges, the game has even evolved into an educational tool for children, with all that being said however it is worth while remembering that even things that we enjoy can be rotten to the core. Part of my family came from Puerto Rico, another from Ghana and despite all of the hatred I hold for the pillars of racism within my country I know that for its flaws America is my home and I am lucky to live here. The United States for all its flaws is a good place to live but just because it is good, much like Minecraft we need to remember that bad breeds bad. America was built through the slavery and oppression of marginalised individuals and as a result for every good that I enjoy there is an equally awful bad. The same can be said for Minecraft, the game was created by a man known online as Notch, a misogynist homo/transphobic troll who was removed from the game as a result of his “controversial” (bigoted) opinions.

So it doesn’t surprise me, or anyone that the fruit of his work also spawns an equal level of evil against the good. Minecraft provides everything that I went over in the first paragraph, education, a creative outlet, a channel for boredom. But it also provides ample hunting grounds for some of the internets most dark and depraved individuals. Whilst Minecraft is a game for everyone the design of the game clearly is catered to and advertised to younger gamers so when older more experienced builders come in to assist the young mind to help them explore their imagination what is the danger? In the instance of Paige the Panda, at the time a fourteen year old girl the answer is plenty. Paige was lured in and groomed by an older white man known as Lionmaker. Accusations abound against this individual from receiving explicit images from underage girls to meeting up with Paige and doing what you would imagine a man with the name of an apex predator in his username doing. Of course, his depravity wasn’t limited to just females, younger boys also attest to his predations with incidents of exposing himself on camera. It should also be noted that Lionmaker referred to his followers as his “cubs”, whilst this may seem innocent enough at first glance when you consider that Pedophiles within the furry community refer to their own pornography as “ cub art” or “ cub porn” the meaning takes on a whole new darker shade.
This story is of course just one of many and I implore young women and other vulnerable people to remember that the world is not as safe as we want it to be. Be careful, remain anonymous and do not send images of yourself to anyone especially not people who are significantly older than you are.
