Another suicide linked to Ask.fm, what are ye opinions on this?

shruikan2553

The thing people seem to be unable to realise is that you make a choice to create an account and can choose to close it. I have no sympathy for anyone being bullied on ask.fm as they can solve the issue themselves quickly.

hoodwinked

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

It's actually the opposite, the questions are asked anonymously and answered by the named user, so on my ask.fm question people ask questions anonymously, knowing that it's me, and I answer them without knowing who's asking.

really? apologies ive only seen my sister posting questions from it on her fb and not knowing whos answering so i thought thats how it worked.

hatrickpatrick

hoodwinked wrote: »

really? apologies ive only seen my sister posting questions from it on her fb and not knowing whos answering so i thought thats how it worked.

Those questions are addressed to your sister by her anonymous friends and she's answering them.

Point is, as I said overleaf, we can't take this ask.fm thing in isolation. Look at what's happening in the UK with regard to filtering porn, look at jailing people for offensive remarks on Twitter (not talking about the rape threats, those are threats and should be prosecuted, but someone was jailed just for making an offensive comment about someone on grounds of "offensive transmission of communication" or something like that ) - all are symptoms of the fact that parents don't want to do their job. If I had kids, it would be my job to make sure they weren't getting up to this crap online, and it would be totally unfair of me to demand that an entire community be deleted from the internet just because I can't handle the responsibility of making sure my kids behave themselves on it. Ask.fm is an anonymous and unmoderated community, it says this very clearly on the website, and if people aren't mature enough to handle that, they shouldn't be on it. If those people are kids, their parents shouldn't be letting them on it. No one is saying these comments weren't horrible, but if you choose to use an unmoderated website that's what you sign up for - you can't demand that the website change its policies to make you happy, you're choosing to use it with all of its attributes already attached.

SweepTheLeg

People need thicker skins, Can't believe someone actually killed themselves over what people on the Internet said. I actually used AskFm, seeing how it's anonymous questions I got mostly abuse but guess what! I just didn't go to the website anymore.

Nobody is forcing you to keep checking that website to see what people are saying to you.

How Soon Is Now

You see a lot of this happening these days teens topping them selves over lets face it stupid ****.

I dont see the websites as being the issue i see it as a lot of people and not just teenagers these days are not as strong mentally and emotionally.

I was bullied in school when i was in primary school and when i was a teen a lot worse then being called stupid **** over a website did i kill myself? Clearly not :pac:.

Im a stronger person now cause of it because it made me stand up for myself and become more out spoken and thats the person i am now.

One of the biggest problems with society these days is there is a massive element of people being wrapped in cotton wool so to speak. Theres a lot more abuse being dished out now a days but lets face it most of it is toothless crap online. Its become almost illegal to offend anyone these days on all kinds of levels.

Whats changed more then anything i think is that a lot of people have become unable to deal with these kinds of issues because i still feel a lot of teens and young adults these days are lacking in so many areas compared to the ones before them and the ones before them.

The people society is creating is the issue.

People join the likes of Ask.fm for attention but then some cant deal with it.

But the world we live in now clearly that couldn't be there fault could it?.........

wrmwit

Kids need to be properly educated when using social media. It has evolved so fast the past few years. People say adults need to be watching their kids online activities. They should but a lot of adults also need to be educated and made aware of how to use social media properly and safely so they can pass it on to their kids.

How Soon Is Now

wrmwit wrote: »

Kids need to be properly educated when using social media. It has evolved so fast the past few years. People say adults need to be watching their kids online activities. They should but a lot of adults also need to be educated and made aware of how to use social media properly and safely so they can pass it on to their kids.

They need to be taught how to live in the real world maybe then they might deal with things better.

I assume you have seen how your average everyday teen acts now a days ya?

wrmwit

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

They need to be taught how to live in the real world maybe then they might deal with things better.

I assume you have seen how your average everyday teen acts now a days ya?

Oh I have, and some of it aint pretty!

SweepTheLeg

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

People join the likes of Ask.fm for attention but then some cant deal with it.

But the world we live in now clearly that couldn't be there fault could it?.........

I agree. I used it once then just stopped, why do I give valuable time to people who don't care if I live or die?

How Soon Is Now

wrmwit wrote: »

Oh I have, and some of it aint pretty!

So its not much of a surprise that most of these people cant deal with mass abuse and rejection online when lets face it from what i see of teens everyday a big part of there life is about being accepted and praised so to speak.

Half an hour on Facebook is all the education u need on the subject :pac:.

Femme_Fatale

BeerWolf wrote: »

And what was so hard to just NOT go to Ask.fm ?

Kids these days...

... are the same as kids... any days. They go on Ask.fm because loads of their pals do - and like any teens, including your generation, are impressionable and go along with the crowd out of a sense of wanting to be part of something and fitting in. Looking at it from an adult's perspective is pointless and unhelpful. These aren't little kids either so it's not always easy for their parents to control their internet use.

Serious amount of odious "People let themselves be bullied" sh1t on this thread. Nope, the only ones in the wrong are the bullies - end of.
Doubt it was solely online grief that caused this person to end their life, but if it contributed to it, it must have been bad.

I know it's cool to look all unsympathetic and bad-ass on the 'net, but how about, instead of blaming people for getting harassed online, maybe blame those who harass them?
Ask.fm shouldn't be shut down, but little sh1t-bags who give people abuse on it should be banned. Surely there is a reporting function - adult moderators could see then whether the person is just over-reacting or whether they are actually being harassed and intimidated and do something about it. If Ask.fm is a fun site, then people shouldn't have the right to ruin right-thinking people's fun on it.
It's bullsh1t that the internet is not real life too. It very much IS real life.

And there's no "free speech" on it either - there never was.

efb

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

... are the same as kids... any days. They go on Ask.fm because loads of their pals do - and like any teens, including your generation, are impressionable and go along with the crowd out of a sense of wanting to be part of something and fitting in. Looking at it from an adult's perspective is pointless and unhelpful. These aren't little kids either so it's not always easy for their parents to control their internet use.

Serious amount of odious "People let themselves be bullied" sh1t on this thread. Nope, the only ones in the wrong are the bullies - end of.
Doubt it was solely online grief that caused this person to end their life, but if it contributed to it, it must have been bad.

I know it's cool to look all unsympathetic and bad-ass on the 'net, but how about, instead of blaming people for getting harassed online, maybe blame those who harass them?
Ask.fm shouldn't be shut down, but little sh1t-bags who give people abuse on it should be banned. Surely there is a reporting function - adult moderators could see then whether the person is just over-reacting or whether they are actually being harassed and intimidated and do something about it. If Ask.fm is a fun site, then people shouldn't have the right to ruin right-thinking people's fun on it.
It's bullsh1t that the internet is not real life too. It very much IS real life.

And there's no "free speech" on it either - there never was.

Completely +1 on this

cloudatlas

SweepTheLeg wrote: »

People need thicker skins, Can't believe someone actually killed themselves over what people on the Internet said. I actually used AskFm, seeing how it's anonymous questions I got mostly abuse but guess what! I just didn't go to the website anymore.

Nobody is forcing you to keep checking that website to see what people are saying to you.

So you're blaming the victims?!? Perhaps the victims already have outside issues i.e. severely bullied by peers and turn to the internet for some kind of connection with other people and then find that they are rejected there also. I'd find that depressing if I was that age. People need to be more empathetic. Twitter has been in the news for threats against women. The police in the UK have arrested some of the men who made the threats. I'm behind that 100%. I think the individuals on AskFm should be tracked down and exposed, they are spineless cowards.

Vito Corleone

The Backwards Man wrote: »

You can argue about the rights and wrongs of blaming a website til the cows come home if you want, but anything that facilitates the anonymous abuse of others with practical impunity has no place in any society.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that people will go to defend what they call free speech.

Anything that facilitates the anonymous abuse of others has no place in society? So, basically any site that you can leave comments on or communicate to others (including this one) should be shut down because it's possible that someone could in some way abuse someone through what they post?

Well, I hope you never gain command of the internet, it would be a pretty depressing state of affairs tbh.

languagenerd

Closing down ask.fm would be a very temporary solution - the bullies and trolls would move to another platform very quickly and it would all begin again. I'm always wary when I see politicians/journalists/parents' groups looking for websites to be closed/moderated due to bullying - it's blaming the tool rather than the perpetrator. Yes, bullies use ask.fm - but it's equally possible to bully someone with anonymous hate mail, for example, should we ban pens and paper too?

I don't think we should treat cyber-bullying as something entirely separate to "traditional bullying". The people are the same, the underlying reasons and motives are the same. What's needed here is education: we need to teach teenagers how to use social media safely, we need to educate parents on the dangers and benefits of the internet, we need to teach children to respect everyone and, essentially, not to bully.

TBH I don't understand why anyone would keep logging into a site where all they got was abuse. If it was me, I'd either close my account or just stop answering questions. But I guess some of these vulnerable teenagers couldn't stop themselves from looking at it - this is where parental supervision needs to come in.

kraggy

There's bullying on Boards nevermind on Ask.fm.

People in general and parents in particular have to educate themselves and protect their children. Besides Internet use, I'm sometimes baffled as to how 14 and 15 year olds can be wandering the streets late at night. Do their parents not wonder where they are. No 14 or 15 year old should be out late.

It's only when parents start getting fined/ held reponsible that an improvement in parenting will come.

freshpopcorn

kraggy wrote: »

People in general and parents in particular have to educate themselves and protect their children. Besides Internet use, I'm sometimes baffled as to how 14 and 15 year olds can be wandering the streets late at night. Do their parents not wonder where they are. No 14 or 15 year old should be out late.

What would you consider late?

nocoverart

Teenagers were, are and always will be vulnerable species . I think what sometimes can go unnoticed though is the obsession with appearance in the western society, and how damaging it can be on our younger folk. Whether it be TV, Social Media or in everyday life. A deep problem in a shallow world.

RDM_83 again

nocoverart wrote: »

WTF is Ask.fm? I think I'm getting old.

AFIAK its basically Formspring (never checked ask.fm so I could be completely wrong here and never used formspring ut i actually know what it is unlike askfm)

Ace Attorney

Cant believe some people are actually blaming the victims, that they cant handle it so they should just log off etc , the users that are at fault are the ones doing the bullying saying hurtful things to people and encouraging them to do harm to themselves. Ireland has had 3 deaths this past year that may have been related to the ask.fm website, the ciara pugsley girl from leitrim and the two sisters in donegal who commited suicide weeks apart from each other due to bullying on the site and now another girl from the UK has choosen the same fate due to similar circumstances from the same said website, I think that does justify doing something about the website. perhaps removing the anonymity feature and posting under your real name instead might be one idea. i really dont know but there has got to be something done to prevent more tragic teenager deaths

Duggy747

Is it certain that what happened on Ask.fm is what lead to her suicide?

Did she leave a note?

Owen_S

You aren't forced to join ask.fm and you are able to delete your account at any time. I simply don't understand why somebody wouldn't delete their account if they were receiving abuse so severe that it would cause them to commit suicide.

Calling for the website to be deleted is absurd, it has to abide by the same laws as any other website. If abuse is reported to the Gardai, they can request user information from the website, leading to a prosecution.

How Soon Is Now

Take the anonymous option away from the site and there wont be so many issues as thats why you get so much abuse!!.

I have a perfect example of what that site is like.

I have different people on facebook of all different ages linked to my own family or my girlfriends.

So there is a lot of teens.

I watched one girl who joined this site and would constantly link it to her facebook wanting people to ask her questions. In other wards she wanted the attention thats why most of them join this.

Everyone with any kind of cop on is well aware that if you join it and advertise it your gonna get abuse because thats what stupid people do!.

If u cant deal with it dont leave. Some know what there joining up to and do it by choice then play the victim when they get abuse again ive seen this on facebook and trust me if i could show u all i would and u would see how pathetic it is.

In the case of any teens killing themselves because of this site well there has to be more to it then that otherwise there clearly not very strong minded people and shouldnt of been allowed near the place firstly and shouldnt be allowed on most of the internet.

The internet is not a pretty place if u cant deal with it theres an x in the corner click it.

If it bleeds into your personal out door life then thats a different story again...

Lia_lia

Just decided to search for my 16 year old cousin on ask.fm (only person I can think of that would be on it), and some of the questions people are asking her are ridiculous! And there are 20+ comments telling her to kill herself Must tell her Mother about this..

Stabshauptmann

Alright, ban kids from the internet.

ardle1

freshpopcorn wrote: »

A teenage girl in the UK has committed suicide and ask.fm is being blamed as the cause because the girl was bullied on it for a couple of weeks. Do you think it should be shut down?

I am a guy in my early twenties and when I was 12/13 bebo was all the rage. A lot of bullying went on back in the mid 2000's. Fake profiles were created messages/pictures were shared on them that would have made people very upset. A lot of things went on but nothing bad never happened in my area. Most people I know moved onto facebook then and this was when every had a camera phone so pictures were shared more frequently. I witnessed cases of when embarrassing pictures of certain people being shared and you could see it effected some people a lot more than others I am talking about both guys/girls.
I found when the people pretended they didn't care the picture used just be forgotten about in know time. I found when people engaged with the bullies begging them to remove a picture/post that was when thing escalated.

I know these suicides can be traced back to ask.fm but a lot of suicides happen because of normal traditional bullying in school as well. You can just trace this back to a source whilst with normal bullying it it harder to do so.
People are constantly telling people to delete/block people who are bothering them on these sites and report it and talk about it to someone.

So, what are ye views on this?
Do ye think ask.fm should be shut down?

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/askfm-linked-another-teen-suicide-2129788

Meirleach wrote: »

I think parents should be watching what their children are getting up to online. Shut down ask.fm and it'll just happen elsewhere.

pharmaton wrote: »

people are assholes, especially people on the internet. (in real life those tiny people would have the skin kicked off them before they ever got close enough to think they can bully another human)

Henlars67 wrote: »

Ask.FM isn't the problem. People are.

Yes ask fm should be shut down along with a load of other social networking platforms... kids,teenagers, and some adults act totally different on these non interacting platforms, some bully, some aint as strong as they thought they where, whatever, humans are meant to interact face to face but feel totally protected sitting at home writing and saying what they like just to up them selves to anyone dumb enough to listen... Reminds me of a friend of mine, he was forever being stared at, cut up on the road, getting the bird flipped at him and on one occasion challenged to a fight, and all that by a boy racer at the weekend(hiding in his bullet proof car), him and his 'followers' seemed to just hone in on him(he was a taxi man btw)as he whent about his work. So he made it his business to find out where he worked, long story short, he paid him a visit explained to the guy who he was and asked him what his problem was... Look basically the guy s#*t himself and was all apologies... Humans aint all bad but when it comes to social networking or hiding in fast cars, there seems to be a lot more.

Irish Guitarist

When I was twelve I used to have to put up with abuse (mainly verbal, but not all) from people who I couldn't just walk away from as I had to go to school with them and they would have just followed me wherever I went. I would have loved it if these bastards were inside a box that I could just turn off.

Norwesterner

I must admit.
I never heard of Ask Fm before these suicides.

TheDoc

I find it overwhelming how "unfamiliar" and "unprepared" youngsters today are in terms of dealing with how the internet works, and the "norm" stuff that goes on there. But at the same time just how more abusive youngsters are nowadays online.

I find it all too frequently through playing video games, the new generation of youngsters are horribly toxic and abusive, and rage filled little ****ers. And it's not just strictly down to Ireland or the UK for that matter.

There is a serious issue with youngsters today unable to deal with critique, correction or in these cases getting some abuse. Alot of talk in the UK is being directed towards the website and sites like it, and looking into ways to remove users being anonymous online, and there was even discussion yesterday around licensing for the internet, where a certian age limit restriction is in place. For **** sake, it's always horrible to hear of people taking their life over anything, but in this case there must have been something more sinister or longterm going on.

Someone who takes their own life over some slagging on the internet, clearly has deep rooted problems or issues that did not spurn from simply someone ripping the piss online

up for anything

I don't understand why kids set up ask.fm accounts. If an oldie like me knows what they are going to get in terns of abuse, surely they know. I've asked my children not to set accounts up there as they open not only themselves up to abuse but anybody connected to them, and so far they haven't been tempted I follow some of their friends' accounts (they don't know this) because I know some of their parents aren't internet savvy and therefore I could give the parents a heads up if I see that things are getting too bad for them. One of my sons friends is Polish although here since he was a small child and the amount of low level racial abuse he was getting was nasty but I spoke to him and he seemed well able for it. He has since closed his account though.