The tragic suicide of 14-year-old Hannah Smith has served as a terrible reminder about the dangers of social media and online chat.
Leicestershire-teenager Hannah took her own life after she was believed to have been plagued with vile comments on Ask.fm, an ‘ask and answer’ website designed for friends to enquire funny and unusual stories from other users.
The Latvian-based site have now launched an independent review and said that they were ‘committed to providing a safe environment’ for its users
Schools and Colleges across Greater Manchester are also urging bullying victims to tell a teacher or parent straight away instead of suffering in silence.
But with social media sites at the peak of its popularity with an estimated 1.15 billion users on Facebook alone, MM took to the streets to ask:
Have you ever been a victim of internet bullying?
| Option | Results |
| Yes | 30% |
| No | 70% |
Jessica Lee, 16, a student, from Rochdale said: “Everyone has been bullied at some point. We dealt with this a school and most people admitted to being bullied.”
Susie Walsh, 19, a bar maid and student, from Sale: “It is easy to stop using social networking sites. If you are getting bullied on Facebook, stop using Facebook.”
Nimra Zaheer, 21, a graduate from The University of Exeter, who lives in Altrincham argued: “My opinion is that it’s very easy to escape from cyber bullying. Surely all you have to do is delete your accounts?”
Chloe Boffey, 19, a student, from Bolton openly admitted she was being bullied: “I knew the people who were doing the bullying. It makes you feel low. We tackled this at college. It made me feel horrible.”
Megan Thomas, 21, a student from Salford said: “It is really bad. There should be controls and restraints on the websites which should stop any cyber bullying.”
Robert Smith, 20, another student from Salford, said: “They could just delete their account? People shouldn’t be scared about using social networking sites.”
Joel Pacini, 16, a student, from Droylsden said: “Ask.fm is wrong for having the anonymous setting. I don’t understand why a person would want to cyber bully someone else? Why do it online and not in person?”
Charlie Moorcroft, 21, a medical student at The University of Manchester said: “Fortunately, I have never been cyber bullied and no one has ever mentioned that it was happening to them, but that might be because they didn’t want to talk about it.”
Picture courtesy of moneyblognewz, with thanks.
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