14 DAY TRIAL // Ask.fm, like any other site used by kids and teenagers, is finding itself in the midst of a controversy this time, as is usually the case, over bullying, which is said to have driven one British girl to suicide. Bullying online is a serious thing and, despite all the grandstanding, not a lot is being done about it.
But that's perhaps because there's not much to be done or perhaps because the actual cause of bullying is rarely targeted.
Instead, it's much easier to blame the services where the bullying happened and, indeed, that's what's happening now.
None other than Prime Minister David Cameron is calling Ask.fm "vile" for its role in the suicide. Cameron is no stranger to making grand judgements like this and hatching ideas like "adult content" filters for the entire country.
He has a very clear target demographic that he needs to please, the type of people who get "outraged" about whatever it is the Daily Mail is manufacturing outrage over recently.
But calling Ask.fm and sites like it "vile" while never even mentioning the bullies, the actual people who do all the harm, doesn't solve anything except place the blame where it doesn't belong and find a scapegoat when the actual problem is much, much harder to pinpoint or fix.
But the grandstanding isn't going unnoticed, a number of advertisers have withdrawn their support for the site, preferring not to be associated with Ask.fm, even if they were perfectly happy to give it serious amounts of money just days before.
Ask.fm has a simple idea behind it, through it, friends can ask anything about the user, anonymously, sort of like a Reddit AMA. Unlike a social network, users have to actively encourage others to ask these questions. And, if they don't like the answers they're getting, they can simply stop using the app.