The social networking headlines this week
have been mostly Twitter's: anonymous threats of death,
rape and violence; well known girls including a campaigner, an
MP, a TV historian, columnists and writers; arrests charges,
boycotts,.
But much from the media spotlight on the San Francisco-based site and its high-profile users, another service has now been connected to up to half a dozen deaths. And unless you are the parent of a teenager, or a teenager, you'll quite possibly never have heard of it.
Last Friday, Hannah Smith, aged 14, was found hanged in her bedroom in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, by her sister Jo, 16. HannahSmith dad, Dave, said she had been savagely bullied on the question-and-answer website Ask.fm.
"I have merely seen the mistreatment my daughter got from people on Ask.fm and also that these folks may be anonymous is wrong," Smith, 45, wrote on his Facebook page.
Based in Riga, Latvia, Ask.fm was launched in June 2010. It assembles on a US-based forerunner called Formspring, offering a website along with a cellular Ask.fm Tracking Tool on which users first create a profile (you necessitate a name, email address and date of birth) and then encourage friends as well as strangers to ask them questions - anonymously when they so choose, and nearly all do.
Many members encourage their Ask.fm profiles on their Facebook and Instagram reports, further improving the number of questions they get asked. Their answers, which can contain photos as well as videos, seem both on their profiles and on a live feed of responses accessible to anybody with an Ask.fm account.
The service's popularity, especially among teens, is staggering. In June, Ask.fm declared it had 60 million registered users, up from hardly 5m in April last year. June's iPhone app is consistently in the top 10 downloads on Apple's app store, frequently ahead of better known services for example YouTube or Twitter.
But much from the media spotlight on the San Francisco-based site and its high-profile users, another service has now been connected to up to half a dozen deaths. And unless you are the parent of a teenager, or a teenager, you'll quite possibly never have heard of it.
Last Friday, Hannah Smith, aged 14, was found hanged in her bedroom in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, by her sister Jo, 16. HannahSmith dad, Dave, said she had been savagely bullied on the question-and-answer website Ask.fm.
"I have merely seen the mistreatment my daughter got from people on Ask.fm and also that these folks may be anonymous is wrong," Smith, 45, wrote on his Facebook page.
Based in Riga, Latvia, Ask.fm was launched in June 2010. It assembles on a US-based forerunner called Formspring, offering a website along with a cellular Ask.fm Tracking Tool on which users first create a profile (you necessitate a name, email address and date of birth) and then encourage friends as well as strangers to ask them questions - anonymously when they so choose, and nearly all do.
Many members encourage their Ask.fm profiles on their Facebook and Instagram reports, further improving the number of questions they get asked. Their answers, which can contain photos as well as videos, seem both on their profiles and on a live feed of responses accessible to anybody with an Ask.fm account.
The service's popularity, especially among teens, is staggering. In June, Ask.fm declared it had 60 million registered users, up from hardly 5m in April last year. June's iPhone app is consistently in the top 10 downloads on Apple's app store, frequently ahead of better known services for example YouTube or Twitter.
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