Metro The Story of 14-year Old Hannah Smith, who Follows Twitter Advice and Hangs Herself

[Vunderkind]

A distraught father last night spoke on how a website popular among twitter users drove his daughter to hang herself after a long-drawn internet bullying episode.

David Smith has asked for legal action to be carried out against Ask.fm, the website where his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah Smith had turned to for help with her eczema condition. Instead of getting help, she was barraged with series of online posts asking her to ‘die’.

She was later found dead in her bedroom by her elder sister, Jo last Friday. Investigations are currently going on into her death.

But the vileness of the trolls didn’t end with the death of Hannah. They hijacked her Facebook tribute page and made even more hurtful and damaging attacks on her. One of such trolls called her a coward for killing herself.

David Smith has said: “How many more teenagers will kill themselves because of online abuse before something is done? These sick people are just able to go online and hide behind a mask of anonymity while they abuse vulnerable teenagers. “We’ve lost Hannah in the most horrendous way imaginable. It’s time something was done so that no other family has to go through this.

“When you’re sitting behind a computer screen you can say whatever you want and there’s no comeback. But these trolls need to realize that they are affecting people’s lives in the most horrific ways imaginable.

“If you’re bullied in the workplace something is done about it and if you’re bullied at school something is done about it. So why, when people are being bullied on social networking sites, is nothing being done about it?”

As the story goes, Hannah was getting ready to write her GCSE’s and had logged on to Ask.fm for advice for her eczema problem, which had been a problem for her since her early childhood. The eczema had stopped temporarily, and returned again, and she was in need of a solution to the problem. Instead of getting help, however, she was abused.

Some replies to her ask.fm question was: “u ugly f*** go die every1 wuld be happy”, “do us all a favour n kill ur self”. Someone even suggested that she cut herself and die.

According to Hannah’s Step mother, Deborah Smith, “Hannah was bubbly, bright, cheerful and never had a glum face”

A day before she killed herself, Hannah posted an online note with the sentence: “You think you want to die, but in reality you want to be saved.”

 

[Sandra Chiefe]

That's so sad, on both sides of the computer. Why she would listen to idiots that haven't got the balls to stand in her face and say horrible things is stupid. Who listens to this rubbish?

 

[naija questions]

Tragic

 

[Vunderkind]

That's so sad, on both sides of the computer. Why she would listen to idiots that haven't got the balls to stand in her face and say horrible things is stupid. Who listens to this rubbish?

Well, let's look at it this way:
She had the eczema when she was little, so I guess her peers bullied her. You know how children can get when they bully? It's pure evil nastiness.

Now, the eczema clears up, so she can finally have fun and blend with society. And she's getting ready to take her GCSE's when...uh-oh. Eczema returns. She's in a panic. She has so much friends now, is she going to lose them? Will the bullying return?

She logs on to Ask.fm - very popular with twitter users - and asks her friends the question: How do I get rid of my eczema.

Yes, anyone who replies you on Ask.fm is actually your 'friend' on Twitter. So, imagine her shock when her 'friends' are anonymously sending her suggestions for killing herself.

It confirms it: her eczema is horrible and no one really likes her.

So she kills herself.

Alas. Tragic end.

 

[Vunderkind]

Tragic

It is. Very sad.

 

[Sandra Chiefe]

I get your train of thought and I would agree up till the part where she should have had a "revelation", an epiphany, if you will after she found out her "friends" weren't friends at all.
I understand that she was insecure and her society can be focused a lot on the physical, but just because you have eczema doesn't mean its the end of the world. She was at a point where re-evaluating herself, her friends and her entire life would have been the perfect thing - GSCEs, cyber bullies made up of your social circle, the eczema making a come back.
Yea, she was obviously shocked, depressed, hated herself and the world, but she should have thought about how her death would affect those who loved her, because it hasn't done any good if her family have lost a loved one and the bullies write crap on her tribute page.

Lack of self worth is a dangerous thing.

 

[Vunderkind]

I get your train of thought and I would agree up till the part where she should have had a "revelation", an epiphany, if you will after she found out her "friends" weren't friends at all.
I understand that she was insecure and her society can be focused a lot on the physical, but just because you have eczema doesn't mean its the end of the world. She was at a point where re-evaluating herself, her friends and her entire life would have been the perfect thing - GSCEs, cyber bullies made up of your social circle, the eczema making a come back.
Yea, she was obviously shocked, depressed, hated herself and the world, but she should have thought about how her death would affect those who loved her, because it hasn't done any good if her family have lost a loved one and the bullies write crap on her tribute page.

Lack of self worth is a dangerous thing.

But why, I ask, did she not go to her parents? Don't you think there's something weird about that?

 

[naija questions]

But why, I ask, did she not go to her parents? Don't you think there's something weird about that?

Teenagers do not speak to parents.

 

[Sandra Chiefe]

Even if they do, that rare occurence happens to only a few. I never talked to my parents beyond school and my only answers were "fine".
Teenagers think parents are so uncool.

 

[LequteMan]

Well, this just about reveals how evil the human nature is. People are mean, selfish and devilish. Once they are under the mask of anonymity they think they can spew the trash from within them and ruin people's life. She should have known better. If she couldn't talk to her parents, at least she should have friends. I don't mean 'cyber friends' but real friends who can give her the advice and support she needed. She really should have known better. Some people have it worse than she does.
I'm really pissed about the way people behave. You don't go judging people just like that. Most people just make damaging comments without really comprehending the situation at hand.
Disturbing. Tragic. Sad.

 

[Vunderkind]

Even if they do, that rare occurence happens to only a few. I never talked to my parents beyond school and my only answers were "fine".
Teenagers think parents are so uncool.

Wow.
I guess I skipped my teen age then...

 

[Vunderkind]

Well, this just about reveals how evil the human nature is. People are mean, selfish and devilish. Once they are under the mask of anonymity they think they can spew the trash from within them and ruin people's life. She should have known better. If she couldn't talk to her parents, at least she should have friends. I don't mean 'cyber friends' but real friends who can give her the advice and support she needed. She really should have known better. Some people have it worse than she does.
I'm really pissed about the way people behave. You don't go judging people just like that. Most people just make damaging comments without really comprehending the situation at hand.
Disturbing. Tragic. Sad.

Most people do not expect you to take their comments seriously enough to hang yourself over it...

 

[Sandra Chiefe]

Well, this just about reveals how evil the human nature is. People are mean, selfish and devilish. Once they are under the mask of anonymity they think they can spew the trash from within them and ruin people's life. She should have known better. If she couldn't talk to her parents, at least she should have friends. I don't mean 'cyber friends' but real friends who can give her the advice and support she needed. She really should have known better. Some people have it worse than she does.
I'm really pissed about the way people behave. You don't go judging people just like that. Most people just make damaging comments without really comprehending the situation at hand.
Disturbing. Tragic. Sad.

Yea! No friends she could talk to, that she could trust? And even if her friends were all on the site and she suspected them, she didn't have a grownup who she trusted at all?

 

[LequteMan]

Most people do not expect you to take their comments seriously enough to hang yourself over it...

But they knew they were hurting you by posting those comments. And they have no idea how you are receiving their blows. If they had put themselves in your shoes for a moment, they'd have realized, even if faintly, that the next click could be your coup de grace.

 

[Sandra Chiefe]

Well, this just about reveals how evil the human nature is. People are mean, selfish and devilish. Once they are under the mask of anonymity they think they can spew the trash from within them and ruin people's life. She should have known better. If she couldn't talk to her parents, at least she should have friends. I don't mean 'cyber friends' but real friends who can give her the advice and support she needed. She really should have known better. Some people have it worse than she does.
I'm really pissed about the way people behave. You don't go judging people just like that. Most people just make damaging comments without really comprehending the situation at hand.
Disturbing. Tragic. Sad.

Yea! No friends she could talk to, that she could trust? And even if her friends were all on the site and she suspected them, she didn't have a grownup who she trusted at all?

 

[LequteMan]

Yea! No friends she could talk to, that she could trust? And even if her friends were all on the site and she suspected them, she didn't have a grownup who she trusted at all?

Abi oo. I wonder. I repeat- she should have known better.
I believe both sides are at fault. She and the trolls. But I blame her more.

 

[Vunderkind]

But they knew they were hurting you by posting those comments. And they have no idea how you are receiving their blows. If they had put themselves in your shoes for a moment, they'd have realized, even if faintly, that the next click could be your coup de grace.

That's a lot of thinking in one brain, sir. Most people just write on social media without putting too much thought to it...

 

[Vunderkind]

Abi oo. I wonder. I repeat- she should have known better.
I believe both sides are at fault. She and the trolls. But I blame her more.

I don't know why my beef is with the parents. I just don't know.

 

[Vunderkind]

Yea! No friends she could talk to, that she could trust? And even if her friends were all on the site and she suspected them, she didn't have a grownup who she trusted at all?

My point, written by another hand.

 

[abujagirl]

This is so sad...