Slenderman got memed to death years ago, so it’s easy to see him as just the internet version of bigfoot. I don’t blame you for never thinking about it!

But Slenderman was always a predator of children. A child predator.

He was created to be the scary man in a suit who made children go missing.

These are the original Slenderman photoshops. The creation of the character.

He has always subtextually been about the fear of child molesting kidnappers.

And I say that as a fan of the Slenderman stories.