Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Online social network Ask.fm has said it will clamp down on bullying after coming under fire from child safety campaigners for a string of suicides that were linked to the website popular with teenagers, writes Belinda Goldsmith.
Earlier this month Hannah Smith, 14, hanged herself at her family’s home in the UK after suffering months of bullying on the Latvia-based website, which allows users to post questions and comments to each other, anonymously if they want.
This was the fourth teenage suicide in Britain linked to the website in the past year and prompted some companies, including Vodafone, Laura Ashley and the Save the Children charity, to withdraw advertising from the site.
Following the teenage girl’s suicide, British Prime Minister David Cameron said internet users should boycott ‘vile’ websites that allow cyber-bullying to avoid any more deaths, while some schools urged parents to get their children off the site.
The founders of Ask.fm, Russian brothers Ilja and Mark Terebin, said there had been a full audit of the website’s safety features and that as a result, they would hire more staff to moderate comments, including a safety officer.
They would also create a new function for users to report any bullying or harassment, and raise the visibility of a button to stop anonymous comments, they said in a statement.
Ask.fm has attracted 70 million users since it was founded in 2010. The site made headlines in the US recently when kidnapping victim Hannah Anderson logged on just 48 hours after her rescue in Idaho to openly answer personal questions about her ordeal.
“I think they’ve gone far enough to make the website safe for teenagers to use but I also think they can do a bit more. Get rid of the anonymous bit completely, because if you’re anonymous, you can bully,” said Hannah’s father, David.
A report this month from a children’s charity indicated that online harassment, abuse or cyber stalking was experienced by almost one in five children who used social networking sites.
The UK Safer Internet Centre, which promotes the safe use of technology, said it was ‘delighted’ by the changes announced by Ask.fm, which launched an iPhone app for users in June.
“We strongly advise users, especially children, to switch off anonymous questions, and to report any abuse they see on the site,” the centre said in a statement.
The move has also been welcomed in Bahrain. One parent whose teenage daughter came under cyber-bullying attacks, said: “The comments can be vicious and have a devastating effect on the victim’s self-esteem.”
