Man arrested for assaulting girl he met in World of Warcraft
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 9th 2009 at 5:00PM
Here's an unfortunate World of Warcraft mention in the news: a man has been arrested and charged with all sorts of terrible things for having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl that he originally met in Azeroth. Daniel Joseph Czelusniak is 23 and from North Royalton, Ohio, and is being held by Pennsylvania State Police after having a relationship with the girl last year, meeting at a hotel and her house. He originally met her four years ago (when she was 10 but apparently claimed she was 14) while they were both playing World of Warcraft.Of course, this is hardly the game's fault: parents of young children need to closely supervise their activity online while they're doing anything, be it browsing the Internet or fighting dragons in Northrend. WoW itself is rated T by the ESRB, which means no children under the age of 13 should really be playing it without parental supervision anyway, and the added online component of the game should be even more of a red flag for anyone overseeing younger children. This is a great game (and you couldn't find a nicer community of people who play it), but there are the same dangers in this environment as anywhere else your child might go online.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Tormentor Feb 9th 2009 5:17PM
"Mommy.... I'm scared!"
Bones Feb 9th 2009 5:08PM
Sick ppl
Kassu Feb 9th 2009 5:32PM
I swear to god, I didn't know she was 10.
Heh Feb 9th 2009 5:42PM
Like the guy from 30 Rock...
"She told me she was 16, but I just knew she was lying!"
Kakistocracy Feb 9th 2009 5:46PM
Except that if she said she was 14 four years ago (when he was 19), he would have have thought she was 18 (assuming that's how time works), but other than that, yeah, and maybe she said her last boyfriend was Asian, so he knew she was older :D
bigdaddyjay Feb 9th 2009 11:01PM
How dare you, mike schramm, for blaming this on the parents of the poor girl?!?!
I'm shocked that your first instinct is to defend the game and blame the parents for not being aware. Of course, this is nowhere near the fault of blizz or wow, but neither is it the fault of the girls parents.
Is a parent expected to be over the shoulder of their child reading every whisper or chat they receive? They allow their children to play, thinking its safer than sitting in yahoo chat rooms, and scumbags like that guy prey on them. There is absolutely no way to protect your child infinitely from the bad people out there. That is the way of the world. Bad people do bad things. Usually to good people.
Mike, if you have a daughter, will you let her play WoW unsupervised?
Cadychan Feb 10th 2009 12:38AM
@bigdaddyjay - No, I don't think Blizzard should be blamed. If you want to go down that route, then blame msn, Yahoo, etc.
Who care what anyone says, it IS the parent's job to EDUCATE their kids. You're right - no, Mum and Dad can't (and shouldn't) be there 24/7 looking over their kids shoulder, but they SHOULD sit them down and talk to them about these sorts of things. Things like this kids should not find out on their own.
So, yes, I do blame the parents in this. You can teach your kid at least /some/common sense.
Max Feb 10th 2009 2:48AM
bigdaddyjay, the idea isn't that the parents are supposed to be constantly watching the child. The idea is that they would hopefully would have taught this child good morals and common sense.
It is in EVERY way shape and form DEFINITELY the PARENTS FAULT.
Even when I was 10, I knew you didn't talk to creepy people online. And you definitely dont EVER EVER meet them in real life or give out any real life info. This girl was obviously retarded, and it's the parents fault that she didn't know better.
JDM Feb 10th 2009 4:52AM
@Kakistocracy:
He thought she was 18 when he went to meet her, but if you read the original article, you'll see that when they met, the truth came out that she was 14, and they decided to have sex anyway - for the next two months before being discovered.
--------
As for the QQ about blaming the parents, it's not their fault alone, but it is a joint fault between the parents and the girl. Sure, the guy broke the law, but if it were not for the girl's flirtatious insistence, and the parents lack of supervision, he never would have gotten that far. How is it NOT their fault?
IMO, WoW should get an adult rating, since I wouldn't allow anyone under the age of 18-21 to see, hear, experience, or take part in the things which occur in game. No responsible parent should let their underage children touch the game. And, this is not a WoW thing, this is about the internet in general. If you do not want your little one tainted, do not let them anywhere near the internet -without supervision-.
Kylenne Feb 10th 2009 5:26AM
@ JDM:
...you seriously suggested being the victim of statutory rape is somehow the girl's fault (and yes, given her "boyfriend" is twenty-three, that's exactly what this is)? She's FOURTEEN. Thankfully laws in every civilized jurisdiction disagree with you.
You haven't ever been on Dateline have you?
Matt Feb 10th 2009 12:03PM
Is it bad that our guild name is "She Looked Lvl Eighteen" for that very same reason?
And sorry, but have you walked into a mall lately? Half the time you can't tell if an attractive female is 18 or 20 or 15, these days, it's pretty hard to tell. Sorry, but just being honest.
Xyly Feb 10th 2009 12:19PM
@Bigdaddyjay
I understand ur outrage at blaming the parents. Im sure you might have a daughter, but let me equally frank with u. I have a teenager myself he is a son, and let me just tell you the way these girls act is frightening. Now I am not say that its the girl is all the way at fault, bu she has a part. The parents unfortunaly have to take a huge part of the blame. OUR JOB is these kids, and while I dont think we need to watch them 24/7 we do need to be involved enough to see the signs. For instance if my son was playing wow all the time (never happen cause he has to fight me for game time Im the adult I win :) ) and then all if sudden was "going out" with friends I would be hounding him with questions. I would be glad that he was going out and hanging with his friends, but I would know who he was with and would have talked with parents and all that. At least I did when he was that age.
All Im saying is that it just take some attention to details in your childs life to determine what is being said and done even on the internet. I know everything he says and does, from texting too IM messages and that is easy to set up and look at. I luckily dont have to moniter him as much as I use too, but everyonce and a while I will check.
I know that there are somethings he does that I dont know about Im not nieve, but I know enough about his patterns that I know when is doing something he should not be. Being a parent is a heavy burden and its sucks alot of the time, but it is our burden and we have to do our job.
Kakistocracy Feb 10th 2009 4:06PM
You caught me JDM, I really don't care enough to read the back story, I just enjoy inane and superficial banter (though I sometimes dabble in aphorisms).
Moonduh Feb 9th 2009 5:09PM
Mike...are you saying that all dwarves are pedophiles? Because while the picture of the dwarf you choose to accompany this article is indeed kind of creepy, I can only assume you're accusing dwarves of being the ones who pull things like this.
But on topic, I think this is a nice little reminder to us all how we don't REALLY know the people we talk to on WoW and should always be cautioned when either playing or allowing a young child to play.
Fingal Feb 9th 2009 5:14PM
Maybe it's just that all pedophiles should just find dwarfs....
Eyllena Feb 9th 2009 5:25PM
The picture's there because that's the corner of the WoW box that has the rating in it.
jbodar Feb 9th 2009 10:28PM
Caption: "Oh Ah'm HUNTIN' alright." */cast Track Jailbait*
Manga Feb 9th 2009 5:09PM
That sad to hear parents not watching there young kids when playing WoW and letting her meet someone too. This shows parents need to take a more active role when there kids go online.
Tidehunter Feb 9th 2009 5:10PM
This is my face right now:
O_O
Karilyn Feb 9th 2009 5:10PM
I'm not sure what makes me angrier... That some guy did this...
Or this quote from the article...
"State police said Mr. Czelusniak and the girl made first contact about four years ago on the Internet while playing the cyber game, "World of Warcraft.""
Cyber game? [Insert long chain of curse words here]