Trending Now: The Dark World of ask.fm

Story by Sumaia Masoom/Carla Hoppe

  “It’s stupid; you’re setting yourself up for bullying.” Brooke Groom (‘14), comments on the latest social media trend to hit teens worldwide, the website ask.fm. The website, based in Latvia, was founded by brothers Mark and Ilja Terebin in June of 2010. The site allows anyone to ask registered users questions anonymously. People can, however, question others with their chosen username if they have also registered with the site. For example, ask.fm makes most of its money through advertising, as it allows businesses to get their name out by “sponsoring” questions.

  While the main purpose of the site is to merely “ask and answer,” as the simple homepage describes, the only feature on each individual’s pages is a text box that allows for 300 characters. This means that users don’t even have to ask questions, and can simply comment as they please so long as the comment fits within the character limit. This has led to a definite increase in anonymous cyberbullying. In several incidents--nine of them confirmed--bullying through ask.fm has even led to suicide.

  Erin Gallagher, a 13 year-old from the U.K., is one of the victims of harassment who eventually hanged herself. The teenager left a note saying that she could no longer handle all the bullying, and specifically named  ask.fm as one of the sources. Her 15 year-old sister, so distraught by her sister’s death, also killed herself two months later. Their mother, Lorraine, was understandably shaken and commented a few weeks later after yet another girl had also committed suicide for the same reasons, "I want ask.fm to shut down because I don't want to turn on the TV again and see that another kid has killed herself because they have been bullied on ask.fm.”

  Here at PHS, the situation has not escalated to quite such levels. However, there have still been multiple incidents of harassment related to ask.fm. This begs the question: why even open yourself up to even the possibility of such bullying? “I wanted to know what it was about,” says Elissa Bahr (‘15), “but I don’t even use it.” Melanie Schaefer (also ‘15) adds, “I wanted to see all the questions being asked.”

  Let’s say you decide to create an account, whether it’s for any of the reasons mentioned above or something else. Is there any way to protect yourself from the “kill yourself” and “drink bleach”-type comments? Ask.fm’s founders, although they refuse to take any responsibility for their part in the bullying, have included a section about safety and privacy settings on their website following the many incidents. You can also report any abuse on the website itself, as well as to school administrators. Finally, there’s also a way to block anonymous questions altogether: just log into your account, go to your privacy settings, and check the box that says “do not allow anonymous questions.” You can block known registered users from asking you questions as well by adding them to your “Blacklist.”

  In the end, ask.fm might be a great site for innocent fun, but it also appears to allow many bullies to hide behind their computers. As with all things related to the internet, it’s important to remember to be careful. As for those of you who may have said some unsavory things in the past, remember to watch what you say: nothing is ever truly deleted.