I JUST FINISHED THE GAME AND WAS REALLY EXCITED FRO A CONTINUATION AND IT TURNS OUT THE DEV IS A KIDDIE DIDDLER AND IT WON'T BE CONTINUED???????? istg if someone doesn't continue this i'm gonna learn ren'py and do it myself
To be clear he didn't actually touch anybody allegedly, this was all online (still bad, we're talking sending nudes etc).
Basic gist is that Leo (the dev) was isolated as a child, found porn at the age of 11 and joined a bad discord at the age of 15 filled with pedophiles and porn addicts. He would be groomed at the age of 16 by a 20 year old and his boyfriend (sexting, nudes, sexual livestreams) and the rest of the discord group encouraged and normalised the sharing of nudes/sexts between all members, minors and adults.
By 18 he learned of grooming and pedophilia but his brain was so cooked by porn addiction and being groomed himself that he would go onto groom minors himself (for 4 years when he was 18-22), including the person who did the callout (Year 2022, Leo age 22, victim age 16). I'm not going to go into details (basically it escalated once age was established, mutual nudes, livestreaming, mutual r18 artworks).
The two would then eventually drop communication. Victim has neutral feelings, has moved on and hopes Leo can grow from this. Leo hid his actions from everyone as he didn't want it to define his character. He seems pretty open to taking responsibility (he has admitted to 6 victims ranging from ages 14-19 but hasn't revealed their identities; this is fine imo, respect their anonymity and agency to pursue whatever path they want.)
In addition Leo has allegedly purged his discord of channels (and therefore chatlogs) which is also fine imo. His wrongdoings have already been brought to light and his reputation tarnished. His power over others was his clout as a creator and NOT him physically abusing others. I wouldn't want someone who was also a victim of grooming and who is still young himself to go to prison which could ruin his life even further than it already had been when he himself was groomed himself as a minor.
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I hope the takeaway here isn't simply to throw people under the bus when they become inconvenient and call it a day. It's to have a wider conversation on the glorification of pornography in the furry, especially when there's minors whose developing minds are exposed to harmful ideas about consent and sexuality that leaves them vulnerable to predators.
If we are to prevent future victims of grooming or give them a place of refuge, we have to build community. If we are to fight back against perpetrators who refuse to take accountability for their actions or who contribute to the production, distribution or consumption of CSAM, we have to be organised.
The victims of grooming here were isolated and vulnerable and who took any community they could find. To beat the false warmth of love-bombing we can't just be cold and callous to others from the sidelines. We need to approach this with real warmth, with empathy towards even Leo as he's only part of the cyclical perpetuation of groomers.
And we need to have a firm stance on what is and isn't acceptable so we don't spend time arguing in circles. How to include minors (if even at all) and how to deal with creators forced into leadership positions by their followers who both refuse to take responsibility for the power dynamic this creates, where individuals are suddenly responsible for the morality of hundreds if not thousands of strangers. What qualifies as kink that adults can fully communicate and consent to and what takes advantage of those who lack the capacity or agency to meaningfully consent.
I hope I'm not coming across as forgiving of Leo, far from it. But I want us to appreciate how Leo has consented to his own deplatforming and how rare this is in a time where dickheads and actual criminals often shirk accountability and coast off of the residual goodwill by preying on our collective isolation and porn addictions.
God the furry community can be dumb and awful.
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Original callout post: https://twitter.com/P1NS_N_NEEDLES/status/1773501038978646527
Reply tweet by Leo (locked so I'll link the pdfs within): https://twitter.com/LeoTheLionel/status/1773549458678030571
Leo's confession: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PtroKDxnheI8uxARSpWCL_xc6qlK1yh0ZK2OjfKYlq8/...
Leo's response to the callout post: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ks5rPHxG93FEh0tppEPpBG5euHEe69En7IVkY22KyWA/...
Update: found some more stuff about how Shi (the one who sent the callout post) was yet another groomer in the perpetual chain.
Tweet calling out how Shi tried to send nudes to them: https://twitter.com/LokiBaraHot/status/1773553543963701299
Follow up tweet by another one of Shi's victims: https://twitter.com/Vanillanomas/status/1773701678933397753
This corroborates with Leo's response to Shi (starts with a short opener by Leo, then one of Shi's exes/victims takes over for the rest of it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ks5rPHxG93FEh0tppEPpBG5euHEe69En7IVkY22KyWA/...
There's a pattern of those mollifying Shi's actions completely while fully condemning Leo due to their age difference at 17 and 22 respectively when they offended. Honestly? As someone in their 30's anybody that's 25 or younger are all just kids to me. The brain doesn't stop developing until then and victims of abuse (like Leo and Shi are) tend to develop slower mentally. As a victim of abuse myself I can corroborate that in retrospect.
It's also why I can't help but feel bad for him, like me he would have also barely had any control over himself (my abuse was predominantly verbal and physical so I lashed out verbally and physically against others and myself in turn during my early adult years). It's only last year until his brain begin to fully mature at the age of 23-24 did he allegedly stop grooming minors. That he continued work on his game after the hiatus. If his offenses weren't so dire, he may have been poised to make a full recovery and integrated himself into society as a proper adult.
Again I'm not excusing their actions, but I do want to give perspective on how a 22 year old could possibly act far below their maturity for their fully adult brain (they're not fully developed yet and trauma has potentially stunted their growth on top of that).
Brief article on the science on trauma: https://www.multiplyingconnections.org/science-behind-trauma