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

The Black Oil

mrsbyrne wrote: »

No emotionally healthy happy teenager was ever bullied at 3 oclock and committed suicide at half past three.
Your teenager had to be behaving differently, quiet, withdrawn, teary even moodier then ever.
We parents cant keep glancing at our kids and saying "oh its just teenage hormones. leave well enough alone" and go back to watching Coronation Street.
Your teenagers mental health is your resonsibility. Not the States. or Ask.fms
My daughter doesnt like me being "all up in her business" but, sorry, i am. Shes 16 her business is my business. Shes sending me to an early grave and ive gone totally grey but i intend to keep fighting on.
If these poor girls had been bullied by text message would there be calls for Vodafone to be shut down?

All true. I'm not a parent, but I can appreciate why it might be hard to know what's going on. Even with a normal amount of teenage moodiness (stereotype alert) people might write it off as just that and I don't want to in any blame the bereaved parents for not noticing...because a lot of people may not have seen the signs, or else the person who was feeling low didn't communicate this. We don't necessarily know that the young people who ended their lives weren't already vulnerable in some other way, outside of getting hate online. I can understand somewhat that it is a balance for parents as they need to give their kids space whilst still wanting to know things are OK. If your kid is up online at 3am doing something other than gaming then something might be wrong. I'm genuinely not trying to take away from anyone's loss here.

I was flicking through the some of the Growing Up in Ireland reports yesterday, and the stats seemed to suggest that rates of traditional bullying were higher. Perhaps I am just being selective here, but -

The most common form of bullying identified by the children who were victims was verbal (74%), followed by exclusion (63%) and physical bullying (54%). Bullying by written messages (14%) and electronic means (5%) was less prominent. Boys were more likely to experience physical (67%) and verbal bullying (79%) than girls. Girls were more likely to experience exclusion (68%).

At the Oireachtas hearings on social media we heard that foolish Senator Fidelma Healy Eames state that our children are living in an alternate/parallel universe. No. It's their universe, and ours too.

ash23

The Black Oil wrote: »

I was flicking through the some of the Growing Up in Ireland reports yesterday, and the stats seemed to suggest that rates of traditional bullying were higher. Perhaps I am just being selective here, but -

The most common form of bullying identified by the children who were victims was verbal (74%), followed by exclusion (63%) and physical bullying (54%). Bullying by written messages (14%) and electronic means (5%) was less prominent. Boys were more likely to experience physical (67%) and verbal bullying (79%) than girls. Girls were more likely to experience exclusion (68%).

I think that the problem is that some kids are getting verbal bullying and exclusion (the two largest types of bullying) but then the unfortunate few are also getting bullied via text message and online means also.

So some kids might get picked on in school but have friends outside of school or have online friends. friends in clubs etc. Which I would imagine would make it slightly more tolerable.

But some (a small number) of kids are bullied in school and in the intervening hours online also. So a 24/7 barrage of bullying which I would imagine would be very overwhelming.

granturismo

Mike 1972 wrote: »

When a kid suicides because they were bullied at school we dont close down the school.

But when there are several suicides in a school - the school reviews its policies and puts more controls in place.

Amazing how advertisers ignored Irish suicides with links to Ask.fm

Strongbow10

The premise of the site attracts the more self indulgent people. People log on in the hope of seeing people asking them questions? seems like a bit of self importance really. Do they actually believe they are going to be asked meaningful questions?

Kids these days seem to be looking in the most ridiculous places for entertainment.

mrsbyrne

Strongbow10 wrote: »

The premise of the site attracts the more self indulgent people. People log on in the hope of seeing people asking them questions? seems like a bit of self importance really. Do they actually believe they are going to be asked meaningful questions?

Kids these days seem to be looking in the most ridiculous places for entertainment.

I know its a cliche but theres fierce peer pressure to participate in these activities.
My daughter simply had no interest in Facebook. couldnt understand why the other girls wanted all their business spashed all over cyberspace and photos and all.
Then suddenly all changed about 4 weeks ago. Facebook page all set up and on it nite and day. Seems texting is old hat and facebook messaging is the only way to communicate with all your friends. thats just the way it goes. Fickle as the wind. Like its Rhianna this week and lady gaga the week after.

Phoebas

Roger_007 wrote: »

If the offensive material was written as graffiti on a wall, would we blame the wall or the owner of the wall?

If the owner of the wall had invited all comers to write graffiti on it and they make money out of it then they have some responsibility too.

ardle1

Roger_007 wrote: »

If the offensive material was written as graffiti on a wall, would we blame the wall or the owner of the wall?

Eh obviously the graffiti artist, and if it was inappropriate it would be taken down by a mature sensible adult,within an hour or at most a couple of days!!

Ammonite

I'm sick of these websites getting all the blame when this happens.

People are very quick to blame ask.fm and the likes. I can't help thinking it's a cop out, especially given the background of some of these cases.

IMO there's always much more to it

Judgement Day

The fact remains that sites like Ask.fm target immature young people and provide poorly moderated forums where every village idiot with a chip on their shoulder can be an internet hero. In my opinion they have a moral responsibility to their users which they clearly are not living up to.

Clandestine

There has been a twist in this story:
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Tech/article1298958.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_08_10

Roger_007

Ammonite wrote: »

I'm sick of these websites getting all the blame when this happens.

People are very quick to blame ask.fm and the likes. I can't help thinking it's a cop out, especially given the background of some of these cases.

IMO there's always much more to it

I agree with all that.
Ask.fm are claiming that the girl in question, Hanah Smith, posted most of the offensive material herself. They said they can prove this by tracing IP addresses.
If this is so, is it more a case of troubled teenagers using these websites to draw attention to themselves in a desperate kind of way.
There is no point in scapegoating internet websites when something like this happens, the problem is normally elsewhere, i.e. closer to home.

theSHU

Clandestine wrote: »

There has been a twist in this story:
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Tech/article1298958.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_08_10

Jesus!! Has the comments been made available anywhere?

Ammonite

Roger_007 wrote: »

I agree with all that.
Ask.fm are claiming that the girl in question, Hanah Smith, posted most of the offensive material herself. They said they can prove this by tracing IP addresses.
If this is so, is it more a case of troubled teenagers using these websites to draw attention to themselves in a desperate kind of way.
There is no point in scapegoating internet websites when something like this happens, the problem is normally elsewhere, i.e. closer to home.

Indeed. In the Erin Gallagher case, it was reported much later that those who were alleged to have written the bullying comments (who have got a lot of abuse since) didn't in fact do so, and it was in fact imposters. Don't know how true that story is, but will be interesting to see what comes of the forthcoming legal case...

The new Hannah Smith angle is shocking if true.

goose2005

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.

Presumably An Post should be shut down too. I mean, anyone could send you a letter. Imagine!

Judgement Day

goose2005 wrote: »

Presumably An Post should be shut down too. I mean, anyone could send you a letter. Imagine!

An Post don't get to see what's inside most letters but I suspect that if abusive postcards were sent they might be acted upon. Anyway, that's a real red herring and the basic fact is that there are far too many poorly moderated sites preying on vulnerable kids.

Ray Palmer

Didn't I read this morning that the girl posted the majority of the abusive messages to herself? Well the messages came from the same IP address.

While it is possible the same IP address does not indicate her they are a bit far fetched. If it wasn't her it is likely to be somebody in her house.

BeerWolf

Judgement Day wrote: »

An Post don't get to see what's inside most letters but I suspect that if abusive postcards were sent they might be acted upon. Anyway, that's a real red herring and the basic fact is that there are far too many poorly moderated sites preying on vulnerable kids.

When you figure out a way to moderate millions of posts a day, then come back to us...


The alternative is for Ask.fm to remove the anonymous answering of questions and only registered profiles to be able to post, and their profile name seen. And having the ability to report offensive posts, and having actions dealt to them depending on severity of the offence.

Roger_007

BeerWolf wrote: »

...
The alternative is for Ask.fm to remove the anonymous answering of questions and only registered profiles to be able to post, and their profile name seen. And having the ability to report offensive posts, and having actions dealt to them depending on severity of the offence.

There is no such thing as anonymous anything on the internet. Every interaction is traceable to the device which was used. If anyone posts material which is in breach of the law, they are open to prosecution. It is the easiest crime in the world to detect. The fact that almost no prosecutions have resulted from all the so-called cyber-bullying we hear about, means that it is probably not as big a problem that everyone seems to think it is.

BeerWolf

Roger_007 wrote: »

There is no such thing as anonymous anything on the internet. Every interaction is traceable to the device which was used. If anyone posts material which is in breach of the law, they are open to prosecution. It is the easiest crime in the world to detect. The fact that almost no prosecutions have resulted from all the so-called cyber-bullying we hear about, means that it is probably not as big a problem that everyone seems to think it is.

Can't believe someone took my post and actually responded with this...

:rolleyes:

tin79

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Didn't I read this morning that the girl posted the majority of the abusive messages to herself? Well the messages came from the same IP address.

While it is possible the same IP address does not indicate her they are a bit far fetched. If it wasn't her it is likely to be somebody in her house.

Does she have any brothers or sisters that could have sent them?

Lord TSC

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Didn't I read this morning that the girl posted the majority of the abusive messages to herself? Well the messages came from the same IP address.

According to the Daily Mail this morning...

the social networking site insists that she set up most of the anonymous identities used to bombard her own page, it has been reported.
A source at the firm based in Riga, Latvia, said: ‘With the Hannah case, the company have looked at every identity – the [computer] IP addresses are trackable. She posted the anonymous things herself.’

[...]The firm claims that up to 98 per cent of the messages sent to Hannah came from the same IP address as her own computer. Only four posts were sent from a different machine, it has been reported.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2389212/Suicide-teen-trolled-say-Latvian-website-chiefs-Father-girl-14-hanged-furious-Ask-fm-claim.html

Ray Palmer

tin79 wrote: »

Does she have any brothers or sisters that could have sent them?

Doesn't that put a completely different spin of it either way? It was either her or her family posting the nasty comments.