Tuesday 13 August 2013

14 Year Old Girl Kills Herself After Being Bullied On Popular Site Ask.fm

Website bosses claim the teenager who killed herself after being bullied online sent most of the vile abuse to herself.

Hannah Smith, 14, hanged herself in her bedroom ten days ago after being targeted by trolls on Ask.fm.

But the social networking site insists that she set up most of the anonymous identities used to bombard her own page, it has been reported.

A source at the firm based in Riga, Latvia, said: ‘With the Hannah case, the company have looked at every identity – the [computer] IP addresses are trackable. She posted the anonymous things herself.’
Last night Hannah’s father David, 45, reacted with anger to the allegation.

‘Hannah was a 14-year-old girl who was being bullied and she took her own life,’ he said. ‘Ask.fm is trying to cover its own back by discrediting Hannah. It’s disgusting.’

The firm claims that up to 98 per cent of the messages sent to Hannah came from the same IP address as her own computer. Only four posts were sent from a different machine, it has been reported.

Ask.fm allows users to ask questions or invite them from other members but they can remain anonymous, allowing trolls to pick out victims.
Mr Smith, a lorry driver from  Lutterworth, Leicestershire, added that the issue was not if Hannah had sent any of the messages.

‘She was bullied online,’ he said. ‘Whether she wrote some of it herself doesn’t make any difference.

‘A 14-year-old girl has taken her own life because she was being bullied on the internet.

‘If Hannah did do some of it herself, then it just shows how desperate she was.’
 Mr Smith said Ask.fm should be working to stop the abuse instead of deflecting blame for Hannah’s death.

‘Ask.fm has information to say that Hannah was being bullied but they have not passed on that  information,’ he said. ‘They are  trying to discredit a 14-year-old girl who has committed suicide.

‘They have not once been in touch with me. Hannah has touched a lot of hearts. But they are trying to  discredit her because this company was making millions.’

                           Partners, from left: Marks Terebins, Oskars Liepiøö, Ilja Terebins of the Ask.fm website which has offered to name Hannah Smith's tormentors
Partners, from left: Marks Terebins, Oskars Liepiøö, Ilja Terebins of the Ask.fm website which has offered to name Hannah Smith's tormentors

Marks Terebins, Oskars Liepiøö, Ilja Terebins, who founded Ask.fm, An internal investigation is said to have revealed that 98 per cent of the messages were sent from a computer with the same IP address as Hannah's

Row: Ask.fm has said previously it does not take responsibility for what is on its site and does not monitor posts

Row: Ask.fm has said previously it does not take responsibility for what is on its site and does not monitor posts
Last night, a source close to Ask.fm said it was conceivable that Hannah may have posted some of the hate messages herself.

The source told the Daily Mail: ‘It is possible for a user to write something anonymously on their own wall.

‘Only Ask.fm administrators can tell exactly which computer was used to post questions and answers through the IP address.

‘This is how they can work out who has posted the messages.’

Hannah’s is the fourth death linked to the social networking site after Josh Unsworth, 15, from Lancashire, in April and two girls in  Ireland last autumn, Erin Gallagher, 13, and Ciara Pugsley, 15.

David Cameron has urged parents to stop their children using Ask.fm, which attracts 60million global users.

A 16-year-old boy from Belgium has been identified as the troll who sent taunts to Hannah the day before she died. Mr Smith told the Daily Mail he had seen evidence the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was targeting his daughter.

But he maintained that identifying him would not protect other children as only regulating the internet would be effective.

‘Catching this boy won’t make any difference, it won’t make the internet safer,’ he said. ‘The only way is to bring in controls.’

The mother of the millionaire Russian playboys who launched Ask.fm insisted that they are not to blame for Hannah’s death and instead turned the spotlight on parents.

Ludmila Terebin, whose sons Ilja, 34, and Mark, 29, set up the site in 2010, said: ‘What are they guilty of? I think we’d better look instead at the parents of these teenagers and at the way they brought them up.

‘Of course, I sympathise with them. But, I’m sorry, it is all to do with how you raise them.

‘I would worry if my child stayed online a lot.’

Leicestershire Police are analysing Hannah’s computer and said they would consider charges if any offence was uncovered.

A spokesman said: ‘Hannah’s death is not being treated as suspicious and a file is being prepared for the coroner.’
 'I didn't think it would go this far': Troll who bullied Hannah Smith is terrified of going to jail after revealing himself online

A vile internet troll who mercilessly bullied teenager Hannah Smith into killing herself has told how he is now terrified he might go to jail.

The 16-year-old, from the historical city of Tongeren in Belgium, is being tracked by police after revealing himself on another social network, the Sunday Mirror reports.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, posted his fears on mobile messaging app Kik.
Taunts: Hannah's father David says trolls are still making his family's life a misery, as his other daughter Jo, left, has been targeted by internet trolls in the wake of her sister's death

Taunts: Hannah's father David Smith, pictured with his other daughter Jo, said he was contacted by a boy online who said he was in touch with the boy who sent the messages

He wrote: 'This is so srs (serious) i think i might go to jail.

'you no that girl that's all over the news and s**t... hannah!? The day before she died i was sending her a load of abuse get cancer kill yourself e.t.c i didn't think it would go this far.'

Another boy reportedly forwarded the message on to Hannah's father lorry driver David Smith claiming the troll had wanted to meet him but had changed his mind.

Mr Smith told the Mirror: 'I was speaking to one lad who said he was in touch with the boy who sent the messages.

'He was going to come round but changed his mind. I called the police and they said that this was valuable evidence as it gives them individuals to investigate.'

But incredibly Mr Smith said he did not want her abusers to be sent to prison as he believed it would be a 'pointless exercise'.

The mother and father of the Soviet-born brothers deny that their sons are in any way culpable over the death of Hannah

Tragic Hannah, 14, from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, was found hanged in her bedroom after suffering months of abuse by bullies on the social network Ask.fm



He said: 'I would just like to see the people who bullied Hannah and ask them "why?" I want them to say sorry and to see the pain they have caused.

'They will have to live with the guilt of what they have done for the rest of their lives. If they came and apologised.

                                               The mother and father of the Soviet-born brothers deny that their sons are in any way culpable over the death of Hannah

'I still want justice and see them arrested but I don't want to see them go to prison. That won't bring Hannah back.'
Hannah's body was discovered in her bedroom by her sister Jo, 16, who is now so traumatised by the experience that she is refusing to go upstairs alone.

The family has been sleeping on sofas downstairs and David says they have now decided to sell the property. 

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