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originally posted in:TFS The Floods Sanctuary
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8/6/2013 6:05:10 PM
119
Girl, 14, Commits Suicide Over Ask.fm Cyber Bullying
I just saw this on the news and whoa. I honestly can't believe what I am seeing. I am literally face palming.
A 14 year old girl committed suicide over bullying on her Ask.fm page. For those of you that don't know, Ask.fm is a page where you register to have have people ask you questions. Basically attention whore central. The users that ask questions are almost always anonymous, so as you can imagine, the level of random spam questions and even borderline creepy and stalkerish is abundant. You don't even need an account to post. So as you can imagine, the amount of reports must be through the roof, and honestly, I don't see the moderators doing anything about it because that's just how the page is ad has always been. It's like having a mental breakdown after going to much on chatroulette and seeing too many dicks. Why do you keep going there then? I understand she's 14, but c'mon.
So, what I can't believe is that if this girl has insecurities, AND was getting bullied on this page, why wouldn't she just close it down or delete it? Why don't tell her parents who would have done something about it? Why just start posting those damn pictures of written things searching for attention? I feel bad for the family and all for their loss, but seriously, call me cold or whatever, but I have no sympathy for the girl herself. It's just a huge facepalm. It's like standing in the middle of a bulls eye, knowing what's coming, but too lazy to do anything about it. She literally got trolled to death.
If it were on facebook or Twitter or whatever, okay, some room for understanding. But suicide over Ask.fm? Seriously? I just... complete face palm. I not too sure how it'll work, but I highly doubt the Police will get very far in their investigation. All this does is going to give more people more reasons to moderate the internet and take anything you say as a potential serious threat and get in trouble for it here in England.
What are your thoughts on this?
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5 RepliesI saw this, the headline was "Trolled to Death" which seemed almost jocular and light hearted. Obviously I feel bad for the family and wonder if society is really going to shit if a young girl feels the need to commit suicide over comments being made about her. That being said, I 100% agree with you OP. Sites like Ask.fm an formspring are essentially made as a conduit for anonymous abuse, and if the girl had simply shut down her account she would have severed communications with a large number of those who insulted her, leaving her under a little less stress. By going on the Internet an having an ask.fm account you are immediately placing yourself in the firing line for trolls. If you can handle that then DON'T HAVE THE BLOODY ACCOUNT. The media will be all over it saying how awful some people are (which they are) but conveniently avoid the greater issue at hand; the increasing number of teenage girls with an often unjustifiable preoccupation with self harm. I still go to school in the UK, I live in a very pleasant area, but still there are plenty of girls who have self harmed or have eating disorders and from my point of view it's more because there seems to be a "problem culture" where people fin it cool and edgy to have something wrong with them. That's the key issue here, not anonymous online offenders.
