Dangers of Cyber-bullying: What Every Parent Should Know About the Formspring.Me Website

Is Formspring  a frightening new website that encourages vicious interactions among school-age kids? According to Tamar Lewin of the New York Times “It is the online version of the bathroom wall in school, the place to scrawl raw, anonymous gossip.“Teenage Insults, Scrawled on Web, Not on Walls”

What is Formspring?

It’s basically a question and answer website, where you ask and answer questions about each other. It was launched in November 2009.   Wikipedia states: The site, which links to Facebook and Twitter, became popular in early 2010. In response to its sudden popularity, blogging website Tumblr launched a nearly-identical service called “Ask Me”

Formspring.me has garnered some controversy, especially among teenagers, for opening the door for harassment, due to the anonymity of the entries. A fight between several students at a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania High School, which started after an argument over formspring.me, received some media attention in February 2010.

Jim Steyer’s blog post on the Huffington Post offers a few suggestions to parents.They are communication tips that can help families  deal with this social network . They are:

Monitor their use. See what they’re posting, check their mobile messages.

• - Tell your kids what to do if they’re harassed.

• - If your kid is doing the bullying, establish strict consequences and stick to them.

• - Remind them they aren’t too old to ask for your help.

Read the rest of his insightful post.

In addition read What Every Parent Should Know About Formspring  by Rachel Simmons

Verbal abuse is not healthy!