Kids in Wrexham bullied on Ask.fm
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In today’s Wrexham Leader an internet safety ‘expert’ says that kids in Wrexham are still being bullied on ask.fm even after poor Hannah Smith killed herself.
He said that one teenager had been called a “fat slag” and told to kill herself and that he had spoke to the mother of a 12 year old from Llay who had been billied for not having had sex.
Do parents need to do more? What are you doing?
If you think your kid is being bullied easiest solution to to cut the lead to the internet router. There as life before internet!
Ah ok, was just odd as had the author tweet us the same article this morning and you signed up via a mailinator address which has the tag line “Free. Disposable. Email.”
The aim of such email verification is to primarily stop spammers, but secondly ensure there is a valid point of contact if required.
I am going to suspend the current account you have – but please drop me an email on [email protected] with real contact info and I will re-enable.
Wierdly it was on the todo list to contact the ‘expert’ in the article as hes been sending us lots of PR stuff based around internet issues – yet their own website has some possible problems itself, and there is no background to what makes him an ‘expert’.
Good afternoon
I am the consultant quoted in the OP. You’ll note I don’t say ‘expert’ as I believe that to be a subjective title to be bestowed as opposed to claimed. Rob, I would be happy to chat with you and confirm my bona fides if you’d like to give me a call. You should have my number.
For anyone else interested, I have been working within technology based industries since 1997, and almost exclusively in the Internet safety arena since January 2010.
I have twice been shortlisted for the Nominet Internet Award for “making the internet safer” (2010 and 2011) and am a partner in Nominet’s “Know the Net” project.
I’m also the author of three books and have appeared in/on countless radio, tv and press pieces on internet safety, both locally and nationally.
In 2011 I was invited to become an associate member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety and since October 2012 I have visited some twenty five schools in and around Wrexham to deliver e safety advice to groups of parents.
I am listed on the BBC’s “expert” database and you may have seen me News at Ten last week.
btw, I don’t know who WxmMan is…
Hi & welcome to the new contributors.
I think this Ask.FM site is in danger of being made some kind of scapegoat by the media at the moment, I have spoken to people who genuinely believe that getting it shut down will somehow bring an end to online bullying. More online bullying seems to happen on the likes of Facebook, Twitter etc. than this Ask.FM site. As for the argument that bullies are able to act anonymously on it, do people honestly think bullies do not use fake FB accounts and the like? The sad thing is online bullying seems to be part and parcel of today’s social media world where some seem unable to go a few hours without broadcasting what they had for lunch! Concerned parents cutting off home internet access will probably do little as kids can access the internet off phones/tablets/games consoles etc. Most things you seem to buy these days seem to be able to access the internet in some form or another, even if these are confiscated they will just use their friends devices, if they want to get on it they will.
The other thing is all this attention seems to be aimed squarely at kids, I am aware of a few instances where bullies/victims were significantly older than you might think.
Perhaps it’s time the government needs to start to looking at ways of dealing with people who act in this way? Police cautions or something perhaps?
Thanks for the welcome Metalhead.
I agree that shutting down ask.fm, even if it were achievable, wouldn’t stop cyberbullying. As a society we need to send a clear message of responsibility to parents, children and website operators. Parents need to get a handle on their kids online lives, children need to understand that their actions in cyberspace have very real offline consequences and website operators have to take on board a duty of care to users, especially when targeting young people.
I was pleased to read only a few minutes ago in the Irish press that those responsible for the bullying of Ciara Pugsley and Erin Gallagher on ask.fm are about to get a knock on the door. Perhaps they will serve as a reminder that online abuse is not acceptable.
I agree that adults are just as vulnerable to cyberbullying, but most are better equipped emotionally to deal with it than teens.
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