Please Sign - Close AskFM Down (If you agree)

[Ad93]

I'm sorry if I have put this in the wrong place.

 

One of the pastoral managers at our school has created a campaign on Change.org to get Ask.fm to be closed down, it may not make any difference but I was wondering if people would be able to sign it as this site has been the choice of many bullies for attacking other for no reason.

 

Below is a link and I would be very grateful if people could sign it.

 

Askfm: Close down the site

 

Thanks

 

A:D

Edited April 9, 2013 by Ad93

[strawberry]

I'd be tempted to if there were a little more in the way of detail. First glance is seems like a basic q and a website, which in itself isn't bullying. Do they have poor moderation policies?

[Sdrawkcab]

Should we have a petition to shut down facebook, twitter and youtube too? They're used for bullying as well, after all.

 

Edit: Maybe using a picture of yourself (I'm assuming that's you) where you're giving the finger to the camera is not the best idea for a petition website. Just a thought.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Sdrawkcab

[Ad93]

I'd be tempted to if there were a little more in the way of detail. First glance is seems like a basic q and a website, which in itself isn't bullying. Do they have poor moderation policies?

 

Yes sorry forgot to put that. It does appear that the site is just a simple Q & A but there isn't a limit as to what is deemed to be offensive question or an offensive answer.

 

I'm not on the site, but from what I am told there isn't a report feature which allows the reporting of offensive comments. Also if you manage to contact them regarding a question or answer there appears to be no follow up.

 

Should we have a petition to shut down facebook, twitter and youtube too? They're used for bullying as well, after all.

 

Edit: Maybe using a picture of yourself (I'm assuming that's you) where you're giving the finger to the camera is not the best idea for a petition website. Just a thought.

 

I know Facebook & Twitter are used in the same principle but not the same offensive nature as Ask.FM, it would appear that there is no one in charge of moderation or anyone who looks into comments which can be deemed to be offensive. (Again I don't use the site so can only go off word of mouth) There doesn't appear to be a proper report facility to get inappropriate comments removed.

 

I can only apologise about the picture but that isn't me. The form must have been created through a linked Facebook account and that is the creators picture. My picture won't appear because I just signed the petition and not created. Again sorry for any offence caused.

 

A

Edited April 9, 2013 by Ad93
Extra detail

[FN-GM]

Yes sorry forgot to put that. It does appear that the site is just a simple Q & A but there isn't a limit as to what is deemed to be offensive question or an offensive answer.

 

But we don't live in China where everything is censored....

 

Anyway why would they close down if you get people to sign the petition?

[JJonas]

There are only three signatures on the petitiion, would it not be better to start your own petition with better information? Edited April 9, 2013 by JJonas

[Ad93]

But we don't live in China where everything is censored....

 

Anyway why would they close down if you get people to sign the petition?

 

Just a hope really.

[aerospacemango]

I'm sorry if I have put this in the wrong place.

 

One of the pastoral managers at our school has created a campaign on Change.org to get Ask.fm to be closed down, it may not make any difference but I was wondering if people would be able to sign it as this site has been the choice of many bullies for attacking other for no reason.

 

Below is a link and I would be very grateful if people could sign it.

 

Askfm: Close down the site

 

 

 

Thanks

 

A:D

 

 

Am i the only one who thinks that a "pastoral manager" might want to change the photo on the petition? I know that @Sdrawkcab made reference to it earlier, but that is clearly an unsuitable picture.

[Ad93]

Am i the only one who thinks that a "pastoral manager" might want to change the photo on the petition? I know that @Sdrawkcab made reference to it earlier, but that is clearly an unsuitable picture.

 

No I do agree with you about the picture either change it or get it hidden would be advisable.

[JJonas]

or sign one of the other petitiions asking for the same thing

[Ad93]

or sign one of the other petitiions asking for the same thing

 

Yes the pastoral manger has just noticed this. I didn't pay that much attention last night as to whether their would be others set up.

 

Possibly just ignore this petition completely as I don't think it will get enough signatures.

[Sdrawkcab]

The guys who run Ask.FM are really unlikely to shut it down because I'd imagine it's making decent money. I know it's not a nice way to look at it, but you could even argue that they would view the bullying as a good thing because it directs more traffic to the site.

 

Besides which, if this site does get shut down the kids using it will just move onto something else. When I was at school Livejournal was the site of choice for this sort of thing, once that was blocked on the network everyone just moved onto other blogging sites. You can't stop this sort of behaviour by censoring people. Wouldn't it be more effective to send a letter home to parents saying "we are aware that some students are using ask.fm to carry out bullying, you might want to make sure yours isn't" or words to that effect? Why expect a website to do the duty that the bullying kids parents should be doing?

[localzuk]

The site is registered in Latvia... So, a petition isn't going to be much use unless its Latvian.

[Ad93]

The guys who run Ask.FM are really unlikely to shut it down because I'd imagine it's making decent money. I know it's not a nice way to look at it, but you could even argue that they would view the bullying as a good thing because it directs more traffic to the site.

 

Besides which, if this site does get shut down the kids using it will just move onto something else. When I was at school Livejournal was the site of choice for this sort of thing, once that was blocked on the network everyone just moved onto other blogging sites. You can't stop this sort of behaviour by censoring people. Wouldn't it be more effective to send a letter home to parents saying "we are aware that some students are using ask.fm to carry out bullying, you might want to make sure yours isn't" or words to that effect? Why expect a website to do the duty that the bullying kids parents should be doing?

 

I just thought I would spread the message. It has caused problems now and then and I said I would pass the petition on so I just fulfilling what I said.

 

The site is registered in Latvia... So, a petition isn't going to be much use unless its Latvian.

 

Fair point

 

A

[Meldrew]

I have to agree with the wish to close down this site. It has caused lots of problems here.

 

Yes, we also get facebook and twitter issues, but this site just seems to attract cyberbullying. If we added the issues with facebook and twitter together and doubled it, we still wouldn't reach the number of problems we've had with this site.

 

Meldrew

[GazN]

We have been asked to block access to the site by several of our High Schools.

[tech_guy]

It's blocked by default here by our LA thankfully - it's a nasty, spiteful website. I'm all up for free speech and the freedom of the Internet but there's some horrible hate-crime and bullying stuff on that site.

[synaesthesia]

Sorry, can't possibly sign it because I would then be obliged to do the same for 95% of the entire Internet - it's a naive thing to ask of anyone.

[Arthur]

I agree with @Sdrawkcab. You can't stop bullying. Kids will simply move to a different website and you will be back to square one.

 

Sorry, can't possibly sign it

Me neither. I am surprised that people think Internet petitions are effective. I have never seen one that is.

[psydii]

This site just crossed my desk.

 

The only defence a school can easily give the kids (given how easily kids can get at it), is cultivating an ethos of celebrating diversity with a zero tolerance on unacceptable behavoiur. Do as you'd be done by. The message needs to be baked into the culture of the school and from their the community. Alter the kids attitudes - make them think: why would I want to hang out in this nasty place?

 

For the record, at a previous establishment I ALLOWED Facebook and MySpace to remove pressure that would otherwise build and drive them onto services that were less reputable. It worked well and FB and MySpace responded well on the rare occasions we needed to contact them.

[synaesthesia]

So, digging up an old thread (sorry, haven't seen another one here), any further thoughts on this with recent happenings?

 

In a nutshell, 15 year old girl committed suicide because of hateful comments she received on ask.fm. And, apparently sent 98% of them to herself.

This to me makes it clear that there's only so much we can do to filter such websites. I personally believe that everyone that's been jumping on ask.fm is probably doing so out of a kneejerk reaction, a daily mailesque need to point a finger at something. OK, I can't condone that sort of website, it's not particularly a nice place but is that because of it's intent? No, I can't believe for one minute (naive of me?) that someone set something up to be used for hate-messaging. It's the people using it. Keeping half an eye on twitter, the majority of it's use is benign. "Who are the hottest boys in Year 10? at school?" is the most typical sort of topic I see. But, like facebook, twitter, any forum or anywhere you can type and save a comment (hell, pastebin would be just as bad) you can only make reasonable efforts to filter or prevent abuse. No different to at home, you can install netnanny or a filter of your choice, but a 15 year old will probably easily find their way around it. Is their smartphone filtered? Probably not. Have a lot of parents even thought about that? I'd guess no.

 

It would appear clear to me that people should probably be spending more time with the individuals they may have concern about, rather than ignoring them and concentrating on the technology they're using to do whatever it is they are doing. It's absolutely tragic about the poor girl in question; if what's being said now is true, then she clearly had problems other than what we know about online. Noone in any article I've read has mentioned the possibility that she's just a human being that's hit a rough patch, or a human being that's been hiding any problems from everyone for a long time and it's finally bubbled over. Of course, as internet armchair experts, we don't even know if there is history before this incident, but it doesn't seem to stop many people commenting never-the-less.

 

There's a lot we can do to help within the school as IT staff. We can certainly, to the best of our ability filter out as many sites that could act as a catalyst for this sort of thing, we can do our level best to report incidents and concerns to the relevant people but I'm starting to believe that the IT side of things should be stepped back and the actual children listened to. I have a huge amount of respect for the pastoral support staff at our school, we have some really difficult kids in really difficult situations and it's great to see that these staff do make one hell of a difference. Of course we're often asked by those staff members to keep an eye on things but that's perhaps the way it should be - people shouldn't be jumping on the technology or software as the first place to point a finger and the first thing to fix.

[localzuk]

Slight issue with the claim that they're all from herself. If it's just the same IP, that could mean a NATed connection (such as a phone network), proxy server etc...

 

I'd need a little more proof than that being presented by the tabloids.

[synaesthesia]

Absolutely, but as said, the public knows next to nothing about it. It'd be nice if the police were able to confirm it or otherwise. My point of course still stands.

[Ephelyon]

I think a lot of cyberbullying and trolling relies on the ability to be anonymous very easily. As it's the Internet, if you want to be anonymous slightly less easily you can do it regardless, but I think a lot of what goes on with ask.fm is comparable to "opportunistic" crimes where the perpetrator only goes to the bother of committing the crime because of how easy it is (I'm sure others could provide a better summary).

 

Therefore I wonder whether a petition (or other effort) to ask the site to consider its policies - rather than closing down completely and thus depriving the owners of its income - might be more effective. One of the major problems with ask.fm is the ability to post anonymously. Would it be worth starting there?

 

The site could mandate that a user must be registered - possibly even going through an identity confirmation process (sounds like a "down the line" goal) similar to that of e.g. CouchSurfing - before being allowed to post a question? As an extension, the site could adopt practices similar to Facebook or LinkedIn, whereby one could for example view a user's questions page but not post there unless they were sufficiently "closely connected" (by whatever means). That would seem more plausible than attempting to force a website that for all intents and purposes is neutral in approach to close down over "a little local difficulty" (apologies, but we all know how this can be viewed by people who have different priorities).

[Arthur]

Slight issue with the claim that they're all from herself. If it's just the same IP, that could mean a NATed connection (such as a phone network), proxy server etc...

For all we know it could have been her sister. There are certainly a lot of unanswered questions.

 

I personally believe that everyone that's been jumping on ask.fm is probably doing so out of a kneejerk reaction, a daily mailesque need to point a finger at something.

I agree. The Daily Mail-led campaign against Ask.fm (and Google before that) is utterly ridiculous. Shutting down Ask.fm will not stop people being bullied online, nor is it the only website that bullies use.

 

The worst part of it all is that David Cameron actually takes notice of the Daily Mail's sensationalist headlines. The last thing we need is a government run by right-wing tabloids!

 

http://i.imgur.com/TyGsVbg.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q7rc7VT.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/MC8uQdj.jpg

Edited August 11, 2013 by Arthur