The Satanic Panic was a moral panic that started back in the 1960's but really picked up and gained cultural significane in the 1980's.
The moral panic consisted of 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse. There doesn't seem to be a direct defintion of Satanic ritual abuse expect from christain websites that I don't trust and strangely several goverment websites???
The start can be traced to three films: Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976). All of these films contain paranormal or Satanic themes. There was also the fear of the new religions movement in the 60's that scared many christain americans. "Michelle Remembers" by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith was a book that kick started the satanic panic during the 80's. The book was about the satanic rituals that Smith was forced to attend. The information from the book was obtained from a discredited psychiatric practice, however its influence was still very strong. Soon other forms of media would enforce these same ideas or convince people that certain things had a satanic influence on them and others. The Cold War and fading of tradtional values because of youth culture fueled the paranoia even more. One very interesting case that really sparked panic was the Ricky Kasso case. He was a homeless teenager who frequently took drugs and hanged around people who sold them, he was specifically close with a group called Knights of the Black Circle. The media mistook this group for a satanic cult. Kasso was also rumored to participate in occult ceremonies. The murder start when one night there was a conflict between Kasso and Gary Lauwers over drugs and money.
One night when they sent up a camp in the woods with a few other people. At some point things turned violent and Kasso killed Lauwers.
When Kasso was arrested he was wearing an AC-DC shirt. This would help further the connection between heavy metal and satanism. 
Tipper Gore led the war on metal with her group Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The group created the filthy fifteen. This was a list of songs that were deemed too explict because of their lyrics. They were categorized by topics such as sex, violence, drugs, and the occult. Eventually a senate hearing was called with representatives from the PMRC and the musicians Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver. This hearing would cause the "Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics" stickers to
The panic about D&D started with the disappearence of James Dallas Egbert III in 1979. A private investigator named William Dear who blamed D&D on the disappearence. He was found in the utility tunnels of his university where he was hiding because of his depression and drug addiction. He would commit suicide a year later in 1980 and D&D was blamed for this. Another similar incident happened in 1982 with Irving Lee Pulling. After killing himself his mother would go on to blame D&D. A classmate of his said that Pulling had a lot of problems that weren't related to D&D. Christain groups claimed that the roleplaying game was a gate way for the youth for fall influence to demons. People thought that young teenagers won't be able to distingush fantasy from reality. The American Association
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