With facebook statuses posted daily luring students into the addictive world of anonymity, it isn’t hard to fall for the trap of Ask.fm. A website devoted to the innocent practice of asking friendly questions to get to know people better seems harmless, until you realize the malicious nature behind this concept.
People don’t realize that any Ask.fm page is viewable to everyone and anyone, and according to the site’s privacy policy information can be collected and shared by Ask.fm from anyone’s profile. Even people who don’t have their own profile have accessibility to read and ask questions anonymously. Security, especially online security should be taken very seriously, and students are forgetting to censor the things they post publicly. Describing all your secrets, feelings, and life activities while revealing all the scandoulous details about your life on a public forum prove how teenagers can’t handle the responsibility of such a website.
The worst part is, teenagers have decided to abandon the idea of asking questions all together. With the protection of hiding behind a computer, the insecure and cowardly bullies emerge as they post hateful remarks on other people’s page. Being anonymous gives them the power they crave, and grants them the easiest way to safely hide from the viciousness of their actions. Such behavior continues to prompt more and more unacceptable cyberbullying and it is time for it to stop. People have been receiving posts telling them to kill themselves, and other terrible things of this nature. Just because this form of bullying isn’t physical or in person, it doesn’t make it any less harmful, and if anything it is only worse.
Teenagers are being torn apart by this website and if we can’t resist the temptation to attack through the pathetic name of anonymous we shouldn’t have access to this privilege. Even if the victim decides to delete a question, nothing can stop the fact that it now exists forever. Any question you ask, and every answer that is posted, has no way of ever being all the way deleted. The harmful words will stick with you forever and the guilt of your crime can never be taken back.
Communication standards continue to transform and Ask.fm is only another example of how the future is leading to less personal interaction, and more communication through the use of technology. Teenagers are the leaders for the future and it is up to us to prove we can handle this responsibility. Wasting our time abusing cruel and irresponsible websites to harm others is not the ideal way of preparing ourselves for the approaching society. The time has come for cybullies to accept their final defeat, and harmful websites like Ask.fm to loose its place in the lives of students.
