Online Abuse

[1e10]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...told-drink-bleach-bullies-website-Ask-fm.html

Been reading this. I'll post it here too.

Schoolgirl is 'trolled to death': Parents' agony as daughter, 14, 'hangs herself' after horrific abuse from bullies on website Ask.fm

Hannah Smith, from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, was found dead on Friday after being sent abusive messages on controversial website Ask.fm.

After a barrage of abuse Hannah posted the handwritten message: 'You think you want to die but in reality you just want to be saved' on the day before she died.

Her devastated parents posted the terrible news online and attacked the social media site for not doing more to tackle bullies and called for it to be banned.

Hannah's father Dave Smith wrote on Facebook: 'On Friday morning my daughter was found hanged last night i seen her ask fm account and someone had been telling her to die'.

The heartbroken father added: 'My heart is broken in 2 and is gonna take along time to repair i just hope that none of you have to go through the pain im goin through rite now and love u all.

'Wats left after hannah took here own life.

'Me and jo sleep down stairs now - we dont have a bed time.

'We have to go for walks regular as we cant bear being in this empty house.'

Leicestershire Police confirmed they are not treating Hannah's death as suspicious.

'Officers were called to an address in Lutterworth, Leicestershire at around 6.45am on Friday August 2, following a report of a body being found,' a spokesman said.

'The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file is being prepared for the Coroner. Officers acting on behalf of the Coroner have secured a computer and a mobile phone as part of the Coroner’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding the unexpected death'.

Ask fm user Chloe India posted on the website: 'R.I.P. Hannah Smith, she killed herself due to ask.fm and bullying. The haters need to realize.

'These situations need handling fast, too many people commit suicide because of the haters / cyber bully's on here and any other social networking sites'.

It came as the debate over cyber-bullying continues to rage as several high-profile women have been threatened with rape and murder by trolls.

Ask.fm, which launched in 2010, has been heavily criticised by anti-bullying charities because it allows users to post anonymous comments or questions - often of a sexual or insulting nature - on the pages of children as young as 13.

It's not the first time a teenager has taken their own life after being trolled on the website.

Josh Unsworth, 15, had endured months of abusive messages on his profile and was found hanged in his parent's garden in April.

The notorious social networking website has been described by child safety experts as a 'stalker's paradise'.

A tribute page has been set-up on social media websites in memory of the tragic teenager and has gained support from more than 4,000 people.

The page described Hannah as a 'beautiful young girl who everyone loved very much.'

Ashlee Jadeyy Hutchinson said: 'Hey Hannah so sad to here all that has gone you were always happy you had a golden heart but who were we too no that your golden heart was hurting this much i promise i will do anything to make sure that ask.fm gets closed down you didn't deserve this and i will miss u.'

Hannah's cousin, Matt Hubbard, paid tribute to her and said: 'Most energetic and daft girl I've ever met it was a pleasure to be your cousin!'

Campaign group Harborough Against bullying Midlands said: 'We were saddened today to hear of a girl of only 14 taking her life. She was being bullied. Our heart felt thoughts are with her loved ones at this tragic time.'

An online petition has been set-up criticising Ask.Fm and demanding it to be shut down. Hannah's stepmother Deb posted: 'We are behind you on getting this vile website shut down. My beautiful step daughter Hannah Smith tragically took her life this week , we have since found out she was being bullied on Ask.fm'.

The petition says cyber-bullying is an increasing problem in the UK and states: 'Cyber-Bullying has been an ever increasing problem within the UK for a considerable amount of time with one of the biggest offenders becoming Ask.Fm, a site popular amongst young people where posts can be made with confidence anonymously which has led to bullying, mental health problems and suicides as well as grooming.

'The problem cannot be allowed to persist and whilst there is public opinion about digital rights 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. There is no option to block other users and only a basic 'report' button.'

MailOnline has approached Ask.Fm for comment.

Governed by Latvian law, the site’s ‘terms of service’ include an extensive disclaimer which explains: ‘The ask.fm service allows for anonymous content which ask.fm does not monitor. You agree to use the ask.fm service at your own risk and that ask.fm shall have no liability to you for content that you may find objectionable, obscene or in poor taste.’

Meanwhile today Labour MP Stella Creasywas warned by the troll: 'I’m gonna be the first thing u see when u wake up' with a picture of an image from the horror film Halloween,with a masked man holding a large knife.

It came just days after she was threatened with rape by a different online abuser, while other women were told they would be bombed because they back having Jane Austen on the back of the new £10 note.

A very sad story. There is also similar stories in the news about how people are being targetted on Twitter. Many high profile celebritys and politicans are able to drum up support for various methods to brong stuff like this to a stop. When it happens to an everyday indivdual it seems to get covered for a day or two and then forgotten about. There are many cases like this linked to Ask.fm.

This got me wondering. I'm 17 and have been using the website for a year or two like many of my friends have, it can be linked with Facebook and Twitter to interact on those sites. Most of my friends have it.

I know many of you here are much older and probably have kids/grand kids of your own.

How would you feel about your kids using a site such as this? Teens often want to setup profiles on these kind of websites regardless of how what their parents say.

If you son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter were to have a page on this website how likely would it be that you'd know about it?

What kind of measures do you think need to be taken to curve bullying like this online? Do you think measures for reporting and punishing those who dish out this cruel abuse are needed or do you think a full on shutdown of the site is required?

Looking forward to your views.

 

[boing_uk]

Although it may seem a little obvious, she was not compelled to go on the site. She visited it of her own accord.

This is not like school bullying, where one is compelled to be there along with the bullies.

Teen suicide, indeed most suicide, is a horrible waste of a life of such potential. If one is upset by something, the simple thing is "don't go there".

 

[MidnightFlyer]

This will sound awful, but things like ask.fm, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, whatever, are all self-created invasions of your own privacy. If you get given abuse or threats, tell someone and get yourself off there, if you carry on in the hope that it'll all blow over often it will just get worse. No one forces you to be there, like at school or work. Only one person can free you from such matters - yourself. I also disagree with the parents calling for it to be banned - whatever happened to self-regulation? I have both Facebook and Twitter, if anything ever arises on there that I find personally offensive or uncomfortably threatening I'll just close my account. Simple. A very sad case, yes, but so often times there are many things the victim could have done instead of let it reach a point where they felt there was only one option left - suicide.

 

[telstarbox]

It's very sad to hear this but Ask.fm shouldn't be banned because this happened. As it's based outside the UK (in Latvia) it would be impractical to do this anyway.

If someone wants to bully someone like this they will find another way anyway e.g. anonymous texts. Parents and schools should discuss safe internet use with teenagers, and encourage them to report bullying whether it occurs face-to-face or online.

Some schools are already taking action on this - this secondary school has a link to specific guidance for Ask.fm on thier website.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

This will sound awful, but things like ask.fm, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, whatever, are all self-created invasions of your own privacy.

Remember that not all young people are as mature as you are, and that there is intrinsically a certain amount of 'peer pressure' to be on social websites (would you have a Facebook account if your friends didn't use it?)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Remember that not all young people are as mature as you are, and that there is intrinsically a certain amount of 'peer pressure' to be on social websites (would you have a Facebook account if your friends didn't use it?)

Plenty of my friends at school / college didn't have Facebook, and I only really got it to keep up to date with sports, politics and a few comedic pages - I've only ever added people I would consider a 'friend' friend, not just someone I recognised or knew the name of, hence my friend list isn't even in 3 figures. I actually really don't like Facebook as a form of personal communication, so I don't use it as such. We never really spoke about social media when I was at school / college, it's largely meaningless to a lot of us outside of when we are actually on it.

Perhaps the 'self-created invasion of privacy' aspect should be taught as the first thing in your proposed lessons for kids on it

 

[Ascot]

--Condolences--
Sad to hear and I support those who have to deal with the loss.

--Non-Condolences--
How come she didn't delete her page once the threats became flowing? I appreciate we all have a duty of care but there's only so much you can do without the actual person preventing the situation (by pushing delete my profile or giving lip-service) rather than others curing the situation.

 

[1e10]

Lets member here that this girl is 14 and has probably never had to deal with anything like this.

 

[Temple Meads]

Lets member here that this girl is 14 and has probably never had to deal with anything like this.

Indeed, but not everyone will be hurt enough to end their own life after receiving abuse online, the question that needs to be asked is: Because some people are so badly affected by such abuse, is it justified to ban it for everyone?

There is no doubt in my mind though that the anonymity of ask.fm is what makes it so poisonous, although without that aspect it would be somewhat pointless...

 

[bb21]

One of the few things my parents drilled into me when I was that age is that if there is a problem, we share it and deal with it as a family. It is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of intelligence knowing how not to let bullies ruin your life.

One of the most valuable lessons I have ever had.

So sad that some young people feel like they have no one to turn to.

 

[1e10]

Indeed, but not everyone will be hurt enough to end their own life after receiving abuse online, the question that needs to be asked is: Because some people are so badly affected by such abuse, is it justified to ban it for everyone?

There is no doubt in my mind though that the anonymity of ask.fm is what makes it so poisonous, although without that aspect it would be somewhat pointless...

They have a report function. Not sure what goes on behind the scenes though when a report is submitted. I assume that human intervention is required whenever a report is submitted to determine whether the question submitted or question answer is at fault.

That doesn't drive much confidence in me that anything is done. Reports probably go ignored because they're not willing to splash out on the staff that would be required to deal with them.

 

[AlterEgo]

Lets member here that this girl is 14 and has probably never had to deal with anything like this.

Thank you - quite!

Ask.fm has a facility to share questions and answers on Twitter feeds, which is where I found out about it from. It does seem to be mainly young girls being bullied by their peers of both sexes. Some of it is utterly awful. A friend who is 40 had a girl commit suicide over ask.fm abuse (a separate incident) at her daughter's school.

People who want to criticise 14 year olds for dealing with online abuse in the wrong way obviously don't remember what being 14 is like. It wasn't that long ago for me - and while I don't think I'd have ever self-harmed, I didn't have to deal with anonymous, public bullying.

 

[Manchester77]

My son got a lot of hate from one of his classmates via Ask.fm but it was from anonymous an user (we know who though). I went on and had a look and there's a setting where you can block anonymous questions so you know who the hates coming from which tends to put people off sending it if they know they'll find out who it was.

I thought the only problem people had with snapchat was random people sending teenagers 'nudes' and teenagers erm sending each other 'nudes' and them being leaked on twitter / Facebook?

 

[1e10]

My son got a lot of hate from one of his classmates via Ask.fm but it was from anonymous an user (we know who though). I went on and had a look and there's a setting where you can block anonymous questions so you know who the hates coming from which tends to put people off sending it if they know they'll find out who it was.

I thought the only problem people had with snapchat was random people sending teenagers 'nudes' and teenagers erm sending each other 'nudes' and them being leaked on twitter / Facebook?

Ah Snapchat. Heard of a few cases where people have been caught out thinking the images aren't retainable by the receiver.

With Android devices the images are sometimes cached in the phones memory which can be accessed with the right know-how.

On iOS you can take a screenshot of the image someone has sent you. This usually sends back a notification to the sender alerting them that their image has been saved in the form of a screenshot. The received can by
Ass this notification sending meaning the sender will be totally unaware of the image being saved.

If there's a will, there's a way. If you send a picture to someone, expect to see it again at some point in the future.

As for the disabling of the anonymous feature, yes it can easily be done. Many don't disable it though because it is a big selling point of the site. Genuine good conversations can come out of anonymous talk. Again it is down to the user to disable it though and with teenagers becoming self-obsessed about how others perceive them, it can be difficult for a teenager to disable sucha. Feature regardless of whether they're being sent positive or negative comments about themselves.

My friend is a big user of the site. She gets alot of abusive messages vis the site and I've told h before that the best thing to do is to delete the abusive message and ignore it. She becomes obsessive with rersponding to them though, naturally she wants to respond and defend herself. Unfortunately it's provocative and only causes the sender to up their game, sending more often with a nastier tone.

The senders of abusive messages are usually craving for some form of attention and if you give it to them, they bite again, and again, and again. My friend to this day still gets abusive messages on a daily basis, something which has been going on for just over a year. Coincidentally she started self harming about a year ago and hasn't stopped since. This sort of stuff really harms people and something needs to be done to educate the people behind such abusive messages.

 

[Manchester77]

The sender gets a notification when people screenshot as you see on twitter people saying things like 'would @twitter_name stop screenshotting my snapchats!!' and usually it's just harmless fun like embarrassing photos but there seems to be a few 'leaked snapchat' accounts of things like naked photos where people have screenshotted. I know in the your friends follow these accounts section of twitter there's a leaked snapchat account which is how I first came across the whole issue.

Any phone which is caipable of taking a screenshot (usually touch screen by clicking the home and lock buttons) is capable of leaking a snapchat really! People don't relaise they need to be careful who you're sending your private parts to as you won't know where they'll pop up in future!!

 

[AlterEgo]

I thought the only problem people had with snapchat was random people sending teenagers 'nudes' and teenagers erm sending each other 'nudes' and them being leaked on twitter / Facebook?

It might be the only problem but it is a big problem. It is essentially facilitating child pornography!

 

[starrymarkb]

A friend of mine has been targeted on ask.fm and Storify by a group of extreme radical feminists*. Her crime: being Transgendered and having the nerve to campaign for Women's Rights. She won't give up though, but some of the abuse she gets is shocking!

 

[1e10]

The sender gets a notification when people screenshot as you see on twitter people saying things like 'would @twitter_name stop screenshotting my snapchats!!' and usually it's just harmless fun like embarrassing photos but there seems to be a few 'leaked snapchat' accounts of things like naked photos where people have screenshotted. I know in the your friends follow these accounts section of twitter there's a leaked snapchat account which is how I first came across the whole issue.

Any phone which is caipable of taking a screenshot (usually touch screen by clicking the home and lock buttons) is capable of leaking a snapchat really! People don't relaise they need to be careful who you're sending your private parts to as you won't know where they'll pop up in future!!

The notification feature where users are told if someone has taken a screenshot of them can be bypassed on iOS devices.

 

[43021HST]

To be honest joining Ask fm is asking for trouble, its all too easy for 'anonymous' users to post comments.
You lot are saying not to bother logging on anymore, well when in the middle of online arguments, these websites can become something of an addiction, I'm somewhat of a compulsive facebook user.

But I don't understand people who kill themselves over online insults.

 

[1e10]

To be honest joining Ask fm is asking for trouble, its all too easy for 'anonymous' users to post comments.
You lot are saying not to bother logging on anymore, well when in the middle of online arguments, these websites can become something of an addiction, I'm somewhat of a compulsive facebook user.

But I don't understand people who kill themselves over online insults.

I guess if a teenager feels lonely in the real world they may turn to online sites to try and forge relationships with people. If they get abuse online and don't have many friends to turn to in the real world then they could start to feel extremely isolated.

Society is pretty rubbish with all this sort of thing. People don't care until something like this has happened. The girl in the news article will now probably be receiving hundreds if not thousands of messages telling her that people will miss her. If the girl had turnt to them before taking her life and explained how she was feeling then she would probably be accused of attention seeking. That's certainly how it has worked for a few cases I've heard of.

 

[talltim]

Surely Ask (never heard of it before to today, must be getting old) is no more or less anonymous than here? if you banned it, you would have to ban pretty much all internet communications

 

[Manchester77]

No it's not like this. You have a wall style thing and a box at the to where post post questions, there's a smaller box next to it which people usually have ticked saying ask anonymously. You have no idea who sending the anonymous questions.

If you banned it you wouldn't have to shut all Internet communications just ask.fm with its selling feature of anonymous hate

 

[starrymarkb]

When my friend closed hers the bullies just switched to spamming other ask.fm accounts making sure to include her twitter username so that if the spamee had their ask.fm linked to twitter then the resulting tweet would notify my friend that she'd been mentioned.

By the way my friend is dead against an abuse button because she knows that the bullies would use it to try and shut down her twitter.

 

[SS4]

--Condolences--
Sad to hear and I support those who have to deal with the loss.

--Non-Condolences--
How come she didn't delete her page once the threats became flowing? I appreciate we all have a duty of care but there's only so much you can do without the actual person preventing the situation (by pushing delete my profile or giving lip-service) rather than others curing the situation.

I second both parts.

Calling for the site to be banned is disproportionate. Everyone seems to be treating a father who lost his daughter on Friday as a paragon of rational thought.

If anyone wants a less inflammatory link here's one from the BBC. Oddly enough they don't see the need to say ask.fm is Latvian unlike their 'counterparts' at the DM.

A 14-year-old Leicestershire girl killed herself after being bullied on a social networking site, her father has claimed.

Hannah Smith, from Lutterworth, was found hanged on Friday.

 

[Eagle]

Oddly enough they don't see the need to say ask.fm is Latvian unlike their 'counterparts' at the DM.

Actually they did.

A 14-year-old Leicestershire girl killed herself after being bullied on a social networking site, her father has claimed.

Hannah Smith, from Lutterworth, was found hanged on Friday.

Her father Dave Smith, wrote on Facebook that he found bullying posts on his daughter's ask.fm page from people telling her to die.

Latvia-based ask.fm allows users to post anonymously. An inquest into Hannah's death has opened in Leicester.

Writing on Facebook last Friday, Mr Smith wrote: "Just to let all my friends know my youngest daughter took her own life last night."

 

[telstarbox]

There is an interesting article on the Telegraph site about this:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/micwright/100009614/blame-the-vile-bullies-not-ask-fm/

 

[1e10]

Surely Ask (never heard of it before to today, must be getting old) is no more or less anonymous than here? if you banned it, you would have to ban pretty much all internet communications

Stuff like Facebook accounts are linked to a mobile number. It allows the authorities then to trace people using this and to combat spammers.

With other sites you have to have atleast an alias attached to your your messages, ask fm allows messages to be sent entirely anonymously.

 

[flymo]

Stuff like Facebook accounts are linked to a mobile number. It allows the authorities then to trace people using this and to combat spammers.

With other sites you have to have atleast an alias attached to your your messages, ask fm allows messages to be sent entirely anonymously.

Mine isn't and isn't going to be. You MAY link a number to it but it is not compulsory.

 

[Johnuk123]

I see the unfortunate girls 16 yr. old sister is now moaning that the trolls have turned on her, and are making her life a misery.

It's not rocket science but has she thought of not having an on-line presence or is that just unthinkable.

The world existed before Facebook etc. and it will after.

 

[yorkie]

Johnuk123 - I find those comments to be rather unfair. What would you say if someone asked have you thought of not having an online presence?

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Ask fm do not do anywhere near enough to deal with on line bullying/trolling.

It is not right to imply the victims are to blame.

 

[SS4]

With other sites you have to have atleast an alias attached to your your messages, ask fm allows messages to be sent entirely anonymously.

There's not much difference between an alias and anonymously. Ever heard of Sockpuppets?.

Mine isn't and isn't going to be. You MAY link a number to it but it is not compulsory.

Indeed, mine will never be either. It would be very cautious if you use the mobile app though because I wouldn't be surprised if it mines your and your contacts' details for itself (why else would it request contacts as a permission?) I would prefer not to use social networking but nobody uses IM anymore and uses "private" messaging at best which I suspect is not all that private