In Destiny, last week, the story of an 11-year-old who was severely trolled through the Shareplay feature of the PlayStation captured public attention. Now, the story has another act, the perpetrator has been found. And there are more victims than expected.
We reported last week about the wicked trolling in which an 11-year-old player gave control of his PlayStation to a stranger. The stranger (“KirmittheFrog”) promised to push him through a glitch in Destiny. Instead, he deleted two of the boy’s Guardians and took the only exotic weapon from the third.
Alleged troll is a victim himself
A journalist from the US site “Game Informer” has taken it upon himself to fully clarify the background, which is quite complicated. The PlayStation account “Kirmit The Frog” belongs to a 23-year-old man who lies in his bed, still at his parents’ house, under strong painkillers after a car accident. The young man is likely unaware of what is going on around him or who is in his room or messing with his PlayStation.
He only learned of the incident he is allegedly responsible for when a flood of hate washed over him via the PlayStation Network PSN in the form of anonymous messages. One even threatened to burn down his house. Others wished cancer upon him, which is particularly painful since he lost a sister to the disease in 2011.
Awful situation for everyone involved.
It was the first time… well, the third or fourth time
It has now come to light that the actual troll was a 17-year-old boy who was friends with one of the ten siblings of the 23-year-old and therefore had access to the house and also to the PlayStation. He deleted the characters of at least three other players as well.
The Game Informer journalist has now confronted the 17-year-old. At first, he claims it was the first time he did something like this in Destiny. Confronted with other evidence, he replied: “Well, okay, it was the third or fourth time. I thought it would be funny.” He doesn’t feel guilty and would probably do it again, maybe not. It would depend on the situation.
He takes the anger, emotional strain, and stress he has caused the 23-year-old and his family lightly: “That’s just the internet. People get upset about all sorts of things and say whatever comes to their minds.”
He also has some advice for the 11-year-old: “Live with it and move on. What else is there to say?”
