relationship between a 28 year old and a 16 year old?

[Tsorfina]

We just found out my step-daughter is "dating" a 28 year old. He is someone she met online in an RPG; she swears that they've not met in person, but her father and suspect that she snuck away from a friend's house to meet him.

Beyond the obvious issues that terrify parents (he's using her, he'll impregnate her, he'll give her a disease that she'll have for the rest of her life), the main thing I wish I could tell her, and she would hear, is this:

Love is supposed to make you happy. Love is supposed to make you excited. Love is supposed to make you shout from the rooftops that you've just met the most wonderful person in the world, to make you want to tell EVERYONE you know about this fantastic guy/girl that you've met, that you love, that you find fascinating, that is just the most spectacular thing ever.

If ANYTHING is causing you to keep a relationship secret, there's something wrong. I don't care if it's an age difference, a religion difference, a spouse, whatever. If you can't tell your friends and family about the relationship, and s/he can't or won't, then THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG.

If a relationship is causing you to alienate your family, it's wrong. My step-daughter has gone from a girl that was edgy, funky, and cool to one who doesn't want to hang out with the family. She's gone from someone that I wouldn't mind my daughter emulating to someone I'm not sure I want my daughter living with. From someone who was considering elite private colleges, to someone who will be lucky to get into a college at all. She's lied, she's cheated, she's manipulated her friends and family, and she's become utterly unremorseful....all for a guy that won't introduce her to friends and family, who couldn't take her to his office parties, who won't even friend her on Facebook.

And, yes, to be brutally honest, a 28 year old male wants one thing, and one thing only from a 16 year old, and it's NOT love and understanding. It's the ego boost/libido enhancer of being with a schoolgirl, of being the first, of however you want to put it. And when it ends, so will the relationship.