“Ability to ask anonymous questions is an important element of our service,” said Liva Biseniece, Ask.fm’s director of external affairs . “While we believe in anonymity, we also see that few people can spoil the experience of the rest of us by abusing the rules of the game. This is why we are building a robust user safety system to minimize online communication risks for our users.”
During the investigation into Smith’s case, Ask.fm agreed to help authorities and established a Safety Center site with an FAQ page for parents, “Dos and Don’ts” for users, and privacy policy information. The company also installed software that detects and automatically deletes offensive content, emphasizing, “anonymity does not mean unaccountability.”
Cyberbullying is not exclusive to the Ask.fm app.
According to a study released last month, cyberbullying tripled in 2013. In a survey with more than 10,000 youth, Ditch the Label found that Ask.fm, Facebook, and Twitter are the most likely sources of cyberbullying, because they have the highest traffic of all social networks.
Teachers are often in a difficult position when it comes to students using social media. Dan Raisbeck, co-founder of the anti-bullying organization Cybersmile, said teachers should not be afraid of it.
“Try to understand how kids are using Ask.fm. Become familiar with these sites,” said Raisbeck. “Parents and teachers need to know about this.”
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