ASKfm: A View on Safety

The leadership team behind the ASKfm experience brings a unique philosophy and vision to the table with respect to the safety and well-being of our users.

ASKfm understands we have a responsibility to the hundreds of millions of people who use our service every month, many of whom are under the age of 18. We are committed to educating and empowering our community with tools and information so ASKfm users of all ages can take control of their experience, and make it not only safe, but fun, positive and fulfilling too.

Three pillars serve as the foundation of our safety philosophy:

(click below to learn more)

Safety equals
Collaboration

No single technology, platform or law can magically make an online experience “safe”.

Rather than searching in vain for a safety silver bullet, ASKfm leadership is committed to doing the hard work of digging deep into the potential causes behind the complex issues that online platforms like ours face with respect to safety.

Where does bullying start? How is it defined? Where are we successful as a society at combatting this issue in the offline world, and how can we best apply a holistic lens to addressing this issue to our digital platform? These aren’t just technical or product design questions, they are societal ones. Only by working together across communities, educators, government, law enforcement and industry can we find the most effective answers.

Safety is
Personal

Everyone has a different view on what they need to feel safer and secure when they engage online. Our job and responsibility as the owners and providers of ASKfm is to offer our users the tools to customize the appropriate experience.

Anonymity equals
Responsibility

Being anonymous online – or allowing anonymous people to engage with you – is a choice. ASKfm is committed to offering that choice in a responsible manner. That means we take responsibility for holding all users accountable to our Terms of Use and are committed to taking action (such as suspending accounts or sharing information with law enforcement) when warranted. It also means we need to make the tools around anonymity, blocking and reporting super easy to access and use, so that our users are able to make responsible choices on ASKfm. But that’s not all. Our responsibility goes beyond this, to education and support. We want to be a resource for teens, families, educators and government, to help demonstrate how services like ASKfm can be used for good – to encourage constructive individual expression and ultimately to connect users in trying times with support and guidance.