Ask.fm Unveils New Safety Policy in Wake of Online Bullying Controversy

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Ben Woods

Europe Editor

Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional (show all) Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.

Ask.fm, the social network where users can ask one another questions anonymously, has unveiled changes to its safety policy in light of recent cases of bullying.

The company said it would commit to viewing all reported content within 24 hours and that it would hire more staff to carry out this task, including a safety officer, as well as make it easier to report bullying content by creating a separate button and category alongside “spam or scam”, “hate speech”, “violence” and “pornographic content”.

Ask.fm’s also planning to cut-back on the number of features unregistered users can access and will require an email address on sign-up for registered users. Some of the changes should be live on the site by September.