This has been a real eye opening experience for me to be honest. I was in a similar situation years ago on a much smaller scale where I did things and acted in a way I'm not proud of because I wanted the person to be my friend. I was pretty alone at that time and I had no friends in my life, then out of the blue this mod on the minecraft server I played on started talking to me and we would play together. It was great, I had a friend! I was happy. Then he wanted me to send him pictures of myself, then he started asking for nudes, he wanted to cyber, he wanted me to visit him. I worried if I said no he wouldn't be willing to talk to me anymore and I'd be alone and friendless again. I'm older now and I understand that he was never my friend and never really cared about anything more than trying to have sex with me. He probably hasn't thought of me in years but the shame and disgust that I feel for believing he was my friend and what I was willing to do to try and keep that friendship still lingers in the back of my mind. I didn't say anything because I blamed myself for it. I was an adult after all, maybe I had led him on when I was just being friendly. But if I had spoken up to others maybe he would have been removed from his position and wouldn't have latched onto the next shy/lonely girl he found once I finally backed down. I can't imagine if today it came out what he did and half a community came out to support him and say they could ignore anything he said or did because they liked him. It's just depressing. It's horrible when you think someone is your friend but they're using you and you're too blinded by your trust to see it for what it is.

My heart goes out to all the women who were involved in this. I hope if there are any others in a situation similar to this that they do speak up and get themselves out of it. If a person really cares about you they wont end your friendship for not doing things you're uncomfortable with. If they do end it, they were never really your friend to begin with.