ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ashley Madison

Have you ever heard of a game where people try to hide something and others try to find it? Well, sometimes grown-ups play a similar game, but instead of hiding some hidden treasure, they hide their secrets.

One day, a grown-up game called Ashley Madison became very popular. In this game, grown-ups who are married or in a relationship try to hide the fact that they are curious about meeting new people who are not their partners. They do this by signing up for a website called Ashley Madison, and then using it to find other people who also want to have affairs.

But, like any game, sometimes the rules are not followed. And in this case, some people who played Ashley Madison were not very good at hiding their secrets. Someone found out that lots of grown-ups were playing Ashley Madison, and they shared that information with the world. Suddenly, everyone found out who was playing Ashley Madison and who was trying to keep their secrets hidden.

This made lots of people very upset, especially the ones who were playing Ashley Madison and got caught. Some of them lost their jobs or their marriages or both. And this is why it is important to always be honest and truthful, and to never play games with other people's feelings.