Ask.fm, the new Q&A Social Network popular among Millennials and Tweens is connected to Teen suicides - You Don’t have to answer every question as your Ask.fm friends are not you Drinking Buddies

“Yes, we cloned the idea. It seemed just genius to us. But we saw things that could be made better. We took the decision to make Ask.fm because we saw lots of weak sides [that] Formspring has.”

Ask.fm Founders Mark and Ilja Terebin in an interview with TechCrunch in June 2012

First there was Snapchat and all it privacy troubles of pictures and videos that didn’t disappear as promised, the solution being of course in my blog article entitled “Facebook gets Mission Impossible serious with Poke as the Snapchat bringing “Sexting” back”.

Then the risqué videos and pictures taken by smartphone wielding Teens that didn’t really disappear wound up on Social Media Sites as per my blog article entitled “Snapchat Leaked Facebook page shut down but Snapchat Leaked website still live - Snapchat's Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is really Much Ado About Nothing”.

Now here comes Ask.fm, a Riga, Latvian based Q&A Clone of Formspring that was launched in June 2010 by the brother co-founders Mark and Ilja Terebin as described in “Ask.fm Claims It’s Overtaken Q&A Giant Formspring – What’s Going On Here?,” published Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 by Steve O'Hear, TechCrunch.

Ask.fm is a Social Network that’s basically a Q&A website version of Truth or Dare or even Spin the Bottle where persons ask questions anonymously with the option to give their names of members and receive answers. Even the premise behind the Formspring Clone is obvious to quote cofounder Mark Terebin:  “People mostly communicate with each other by asking and answering questions”.

You join via using the app in Facebook, Twitter or VK.com, Russians hot Social Networking website. The Questions and Answers is similar to the game Truth or Dare or even Spin the Bottle in how it’s structured. Questions and answers are posted on a public page like structure similar to Twitter and are mostly sublime simple straight up stuff related to the world of Millennial (ages 18 to 28) and Teen (ages 13 to 18), others being very personal,  gritty and troubling. 

You really have to have a very strong personality to resist some of what these questions and answers may say about you, especially for Millennial (ages 18 to 28) and Teen (ages 13 to 18), whose whole world revolves around what other perceive of them.

The Ask.fm team has even improved on California based Formspring by adding Video Question and Answers  based on the popularity of Video sharing websites Chatroulette and YouTube as explained in “Ask.fm adds video answers to its European Formspring”, published Monday, May 16th, 2011 by Steve O'Hear, TechCrunch. This is a definite recipe for problems similar to Snapchat, as now you can see the persons asking and answering. 

Ask.fm like Instagram and Snapchat, was born purely as a Mobile Social Network and has racked up some impressive stats propelled by Millennial (ages 18 to 28) and Teen (ages 13 to 18) interest in asking anonymous questions:

1.      57 million users

2.      200,000 new members added each day

Ask.fm has its largest fan-bases of users in Developed and Developing World countries such as:

1.      Argentina

2.      Brazil

3.      France

4.      Germany,

5.      Italy

6.      Poland

7.      Russia

8.      Turkey

9.      U.K.

10.  US of A

Revenue is mainly via Advertising and Google Adsense, with about 15% coming from Gifting. But despite the strong growth numbers, Ask.fm is becoming as dangerous as Snapchat for the same reason: Social Bullying as described in the expose article “Ask.fm, the troubling secret playground of tweens and teens”, published June 8, 2013 4:00 AM PDT by Jennifer Van Grove, CNET News.

This is where persons use personal information obtained via a Social Network and use it to bully people by shaming them with personal information effectively Cyber-Bullying as stated in The New Zealand Herald article “Is ask.fm dangerous?” published 9:35 AM Thursday Jun 13, 2013 By Shelley Bridgeman, The New Zealand Herald.

Depending on your maturity level, you may either ignore it or rise above it by simply using it to boost your own popularity (works well for me!).Realistically, Ask.fm is a test of what you can handle in the real world when you become an adult, a world or innuendoes and lies which attacks you even more viciously as noted in “Teens 'proving themselves' on site plagued by bullying” Published  Monday June 10, 2013 5:49AM ONE News/Fairfax.

Some however, succumb, especially if they may have had a very low self-esteem and are dependent on approval from others and lack belief in themselves and their own ideas and dreams. Such is the profile of those persons who have committed suicide thus far, a total of six (6), ages 13-16 years old in Britain as noted in the article “Ask.fm cyberbullies claim the life of another teen”, published May 01, 2013 By Aja Romano, The Daily Dot.

France also has similar concerns over the open ended Question and Answer Social Network and is currently investigating the Latvian based Ask.fm after this rash of Suicides associated with the site as noted in “Ask.fm: Social Network Spreads Among Teens, Blamed For Bullying And Suicides”, Published on 2013-06-13 13:07:00 By Laure Belot, LE MONDE/Worldcrunch.

So what the solution here you ask? I present none, save if you suspect you’re being bullied, then like Snapchat, leaving would be a good idea. Take a Breather and enjoy the Summer Holidays, as it’s not worth your life to kill yourself over Social Media posts. All Social Networking websites are really in essence a Mirror on the Wall Lil’ Wayne and Bruno Mars Style of what Society thinks and how you perceive yourself. Be Strong.

Hopefully the GOJ will also add Cyber-Bullying to one of the crimes that are punishable with the new 25 year sentence as reported in my blog article entitled “GOJ amends the CyberCrime Act of 2010, enlists Ethical Hackers in a Cyber Emergency Response Team - White Hat Hackers are the Q.U.E.E.N Project Janelle Monae and Erica Badu Style”.

Also get used to the fact that once you put anything online, you’re prone to all manner of attacks by anyone with half a brain. Finally, a bit of advice from my Telecoms Technician friend Omar Williams from vineyard Town: you don’t have to answer every question sent to you as your Ask.fm friends are not you Drinking Buddies (2013).