Ask a silly question ?

So social media site Ask.fm has been in the news recently following the death of 14 year old Hannah Smith after she was bullied on the site. This has led to people calling for the site to be shut down or at least for there to me more control to report abusive behaviour.

I have every sympathy for Hannah's family, to know that she had been tormented by anonymous bullies to the point where she killed herself must of course be horrible for them.

I myself have been on Ask.fm for about 6 to 9 months. It seemed to me an innocent way to ask people questions and as a basically nosey person I enjoyed it. I never asked anything too intimate and never insulted anyone.

Usually questions come in fits and starts , you can go for weeks without a single question apart from the daily automatic question and then loads at once, and yesterday was one of those busy days.

I was asked several questions about sneezing , which to be honest confused me . Why would any sane human being be so interested in my sneezing habits ?? I began to suspect that ' sneezing' was a euphemism for something else but I still don't know.

Then came the usual stupid questions , some sexual in nature and one saying I was like a granny because it was 39 !!

I replied in what I thought was a manner befitting such questions , yes maybe slightly sarcastically as that is my sense of humour.

Then this morning I had a question accusing me of being a prude and one saying I was far too old for the site , Then one saying that I was cutting and sarcastic and only answered questions in a comical way or cut them short if I didn't like them !

Also today I was accused of being a 'prying parent' despite the fact that I have no children.

I feel that if a question is rude or insulting I have the right to answer it in any way I want. I am not rude in my answer , and feel that I am fair but I'm not going to sit back and let anyone ask insulting or rude things to me without having my chance to reply.

I have only had to block 2 people on the site over the whole time I have been on there but I can see how younger , more insecure people could take every comment or question to heart. I know when I was younger I really would have ,  but these days I figure that I am highly unlikely ever to meet any of the people asking me questions , especially as they are usually anonymous and they are really not worth worrying over.

As for I supposedly being a site for teens and younger people I feel that if anything the opposite should be true  but as with everything on the internet , enforcing age limits would be nearly impossible.

If you are on Ask.fm and you are tempted to ask an insulting or rude question , just stop for a minute and think if you would like your Sister , Mum , Gran or anyone else that you love to read the question and maybe you will see it through the recipients eyes.xxx