Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 I am sorry but this website is so evil. I know my own child was told to go and kill themselves along with many more explicit messages. We have now banned it from the house. I was sad today to see another child has committed suicide due to extreme bullying. A social networking site where comments were posted to a 14-year-old girl who later died after "web bullying" says it will help the police investigation. Hannah Smith, from Leicestershire, was found hanged on Friday. Ask.fm allows users to post anonymously and Hannah's father Dave Smith said he found posts on his daughter's page telling her to die. In a statement, ask.fm said its moderators "ensure genuine concerns are acted upon immediately". 'In-site reporting button' Continue reading the main story [h=2]What is ask.fm?[/h] Leo Kelion Technology reporter The question-and-answer site was set up by two Latvian brothers, Ilja and Mark Terebin, as a rival to Formspring in 2010 but has now eclipsed its predecessor. Members can ask others questions and then get replies, which include text, photos and videos - via its website or apps. Ask.fm had 13.2 million daily visitors worldwide in June with each one spending nearly six minutes on average on the site, according to internet research firm Comscore. It said that made the social network's web domain the 79th most popular in the world. Ask.fm says users must be at least 13-years-old to join and requires them to provide a valid name and email address when they register, although reports suggest younger children sneak through using fake credentials. One of its most controversial features is the ability for members to pose questions to others anonymously. Ask.fm's terms and conditions say members should never use the feature to ask things that are mean or hurtful, and it allows users to opt out of receiving anonymous questions via their privacy settings. However, safety campaigners have said many youths do not know how to do this. The network also allows users to report abuse and says it may hand over identifying information to law enforcement if necessary. But in June, Le Monde newspaper reported the service only had 50 external moderators which it contrasted with the 30 million questions and answers posted to Ask.fm every day. Even so parents might wish to note that Ask.fm warns members they use the service "at your own risk" and that it says it bears no liability for content they might find to be objectionable or obscene. The Latvian-based company said: "Hannah Smith's death is a tragedy; we would like to convey our deepest condolences to her family and friends. "We have reached out to Leicestershire police and would be happy to co-operate with their investigation into the circumstances. "Ask.fm actively encourages our users and their parents to report any incidences of bullying, either by using the in-site reporting button, or via our contact page. "All reports are read by our team of moderators to ensure that genuine concerns are heard and acted upon immediately - and we always remove content reported to us that violates our terms of service." The apology follows a message written on Facebook by Hannah's father, Dave, that he found bullying posts on his daughter's ask.fm page from people telling her to die. Mr Smith wrote: "Just to let all my friends know my youngest daughter took her own life last night. "My heart is broken in 2 and is gonna take a long time to repair i just hope that none of you have to go through the pain im goin through rite now [sic]." Government petitioned Mr Smith has called for tighter controls to be applied to social networking sites such as ask.fm. He wrote: "I have just seen the abuse my daughter got from people on ask fm and the fact that these people can be annoymous is wrong [sic]." On a Facebook page set up in memory of his daughter, he asked people to sign an e-petition to introduce safeguarding measures on sites used by children. The page now has nearly 45,000 "likes". The petition states: "Please sign if you would like the Government to step in and insist that Ask.fm and similar sites help us protect our young people. They are able to join from the age of 13 and can post anonymously Unfortunately I cannot complete the petition as I am not in the UK but anyone who is against cyber bullying please look at the online petition here http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48886 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 Five children from UK, Ireland and US blamed Ask.fm before their suicide Schoolgirl Hannah Smith from Lutterworth was found dead on Friday Father Dave Smith has demanded David Cameron intervenes and issues ban In April Josh Unsworth, 15, was found dead in parents’ garden in Lancashire Irish teenager Ciara Pugsley and Erin Gallagher also killed themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Libbysmummy Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 Those poor children and their families, sent the link for it to be banned to family in the uk, cant believe people can be so evil! Hope there's a way for the comments to be linked back to these people and have them prosecuted or something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 I agree that this is a tragic waste of life. But being perfectly honest, I don't get it. I was bullied at school, if all it took was an "off" button to stop that I would surely have clicked on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flappers263 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 Regrettably modern society makes this behaviour too easy. May god bless the soles of those who passed. May the public awake to the sickness spreading across our society. May we all wake up and realise that human intervention beats cyber BS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinaisrar Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 i think of course it is regrettable what has happened, however its unfortunate that bullying seems rife everywhere in this day and age and on every sort of forum going. As a parent i cannot even contemplate how i would feel if that was my daughter or even if i did not see or recognise how low she was before this sort of thing happens. tighter monitoring of ALL sites is certainly warranted by both the sites and parents...........having being at work this work and seeing the slow death of a young man who hung himself 9 days ago and died 7 days later it is not a nice sight to see. This was a man actually bullied my his x partners family and could not handle it found by his mum and cut down by 2 strangers hearing her screams. People need to think and realise the affect of words inflicted and how deep it can affect people. Not everyone is made of stone! People need to think.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 I agree that this is a tragic waste of life. But being perfectly honest, I don't get it. I was bullied at school, if all it took was an "off" button to stop that I would surely have clicked on it. I would probably have clicked the off button as well to be fair,but we're not all the same are we? Life and emotions aren't black and white are they?cliche'sfor a reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 I think ask.fm is a dreadful site, but if you ban it, all that will happen is that another one will spring up in its place and the same thing will happen over and over again. Perhaps ask.fm should be pressurised into changing their setup so that users are not allowed to post anonymously. It does not necessarily make it any better as being bullied is being bullied and there is no guarantee that children would set up profiles in their own name, so the victim still would not know who is attacking them, but at least it is not an anonymous barb. What would be a better course of action would be to teach children about cyber-bullying, how to protect themselves, give them the confidence to ask an adult for help and to use the "off" button. Computers/laptops should not be allowed in a child's bedroom, it should be in a public area so others can see what is going on. Children also need to be taught that actions have consequences and with rights come responsibility. Typing in an anonymous way is easy, but not if you have to face the person you are hurting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJJB Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 Parents should take full accountability for allowing their kids to visit any website on the web. The web is a dangerous place for kids and if parents were genuinely concerned they would have filters in place and supervise their kids at all times. Allowing kids access to all websites is like allowing your kid to jump in a cab that offers to take them to kings cross at 1 in the morning. Websites must play their part, but the focus on this business being run by Latvian tech entrepreneurs is a bit rich and discriminatory. Facebook has had the same problems, but I guess that it is run by more respectable US citizens! This attempt to inflict crude censorship on business by irresponsible parents is staggering. But I guess a lot of families treat the internet as a free drive by creche nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 I would probably have clicked the off button as well to be fair,but we're not all the same are we?Life and emotions aren't black and white are they?cliche'sfor a reason I hope you are not suggesting that my response is trite, Pablo. I have just said that I was bullied at school and I was for years and it has had life long impact. So I can assure you that I take bullying far more seriously than probably the majority of people. But I do think that the answer has to be in teaching children to walk away from this kind of scenario and that they do have a very, very easy way to do that. Trying to deal with it through banning certain social networking websites is futile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 It doesnt seem to be a nice thing, i dont get why people use it though, suppose its curiosity. I saw one girl on my facebook using it, she was bullied at school for several reasons. She kept putting the ask fm thing up and then eventually she was getting abuse about her first kid been taken away from her and then about her still having children for social work to take away. She'd then go on about all the abuse and delete askfm but then start it up the next day and it was just went on in that cycle for months! Internet and phone can be a horrible place for bullying, especially when they can be annonymous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 I hope you are not suggesting that my response is trite, Pablo. I have just said that I was bullied at school and I was for years and it has had life long impact. So I can assure you that I take bullying far more seriously than probably the majority of people. But I do think that the answer has to be in teaching children to walk away from this kind of scenario and that they do have a very, very easy way to do that. Trying to deal with it through banning certain social networking websites is futile. Not trite no,just too simplistic,as explained,i'd have switched it off as well,but we arent all the same are we,thats all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapri Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 I hope you are not suggesting that my response is trite, Pablo. I have just said that I was bullied at school and I was for years and it has had life long impact. So I can assure you that I take bullying far more seriously than probably the majority of people. But I do think that the answer has to be in teaching children to walk away from this kind of scenario and that they do have a very, very easy way to do that. Trying to deal with it through banning certain social networking websites is futile. I agree with your sentiment but unfortunately it's not that easy. I worked with teenagers for a few years and a lot of them feel the need to know what is being said about them. A lot rely on these sites for social intreraction. It's hard for us to understand the impact of social networking on teenagers as for most of us, it simply wasn't around when we were teens. Even if we were bullied at school, it stopped once we walked through our own front doors. It's not the same for teens now. I do agree though, that as parents, we need to talk to our kids about this and encourage them to stay away if possible, and if not, then to help them develop resilience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Maybe ALL the facts have not been aired yet, as sad a story as it is, i do not condone such sites either. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/18461727/website-claims-suicide-teen-sent-abuse-posts-to-herself/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Maybe ALL the facts have not been aired yet, as sad a story as it is, i do not condone such sites either.http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/18461727/website-claims-suicide-teen-sent-abuse-posts-to-herself/ I saw that today, although haven't had time to read the full article. The thing is even if you took her out of the equation there are still other children who have been driven to suicide because of Ask FM or similar social networking sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I saw that today, although haven't had time to read the full article. The thing is even if you took her out of the equation there are still other children who have been driven to suicide because of Ask FM or similar social networking sites. So what to do, ban all of them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 So what to do, ban all of them? Ask FM is the worst culprit because it is all done anonymously people get very nasty when they can hide their identity and there is no one to monitor the site. I had someone on here attack me, wished I was dead, told me my hubby and kids would be better off if I just got on and died, etc, etc it went on for a while, it took a solicitor to stop this continuing. On the plus side on forums if people are being abused we can ban them, infract etc, the thing is on AskFm nothing gets done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Ask fm does have an issue with 'dealing' with members everyone knows that now, but i don't think it will be banned just get a warning and a hefty fine, and used to warn/show other such sites that it's not on. Too much money is to be had by these sort of 'popular' sites and money sadly talks. My personal take on such places is, they should be externally monitored and just closed at the point the monitors see fit to, especially such high profile sites as that one at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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