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Health & Fitness

What is My Teen/Tween Doing on the Internet?

Do you know what sites your kids are on? Do they have a Twitter account? Facebook? Snapchat? Ask.fm? Do you even know what these sites are all about? Here are some things you might not know about Ask.fm. 

Ask.fm is very popular with today’s teens and tween. This site, along with Facebook and Kik, was talked about in the Florida bullying suicide case back in October 2013. Little is known about Ask.fm so I wanted to share some info I gathered that might help parents be more aware. 

* Ask.fm is based in Riga, Latvia, which is why U.S. and British authorities often have a long wait to gather data from the site.

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  • The legal age to have an account on Facebook, Ask.fm and Twitter is 13 or older. All of these accounts are interconnected and whatever is posted on one site can easily appear on the other sites. 
  • No one monitors the content on Ask.fm and users are anonymous. Users agree “to use the ask.fm service at your own risk and that ask.fm shall have no liability to you for content that you may find objectionable, obscene or in poor taste." Users therefore have no way of knowing who is bullying them on the site. 
  • Users cannot increase privacy settings, as they can with the adjustable settings on Facebook and Twitter. See the Ask.fm Privacy Policy here.
  • Parents should know that you are able to disable your own account even if you forget your password. Many kids try to tell their parents this is not possible. Also, if you want to block another user you have to give a reason. If you do this it is important to know the blocked person can still access the profile to check out all other interactions. 

Important Notice: The information presented above is provided for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for consulting a psychologist or other mental health professional to discuss your unique situation.

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