Formspring

[AmyIsLegit]

I don't know if anybody knows this for sure... buuuttt.

Can people get in trouble for cyber bullying over formspring?
Someone told my friend to wrap her car around a tree,and I posted on her formspring saying how they can get in trouble for saying that. Was I right? I'm just curious, because I don't want to be giving out false facts. Formspring is like a suicide magnet, and it's sickening with all the bullying..

[BDF]

Im not sure what "wrap ur car around a tree" means...

But nope... I dont think you can get busted for it. It's anonymous from what ive heard.

[InTheFlood]

If you know who its is then yes, with proof obviously.
Obviously if its anonymous then you can't

[Rainbow Dash]

Since it's anonymous I doubt it. Honestly, I don't see the point in formspring anymore :/ It's a bullying magnet. I honestly advice people not to use it.

[Gymnophoria]

I think that the 'wrap ur car around a tree' basically means 'Go get in a car crash and die'
It CAN be anonymous, and generally is with rude or hurtful comments like this one, but you can choose to be identified if you want to be. Unless you aren't anonymous then the only way you could be caught, and potentially end up in trouble (If someone was shown to have committed suicide because of what you said, for example) is if someone were to go through the long process of an IP check, which most people just aren't bothered with.
The site should, in my opinion, at the very least be well monitored for things like this and have IPs who have shown to consistently post rude and hurtful comments banned indefinitely from the site.

[AmyIsLegit]

Ohh okay.

Yeah, wrapping your car around a tree means getting in a crash and dying, basically.

I think formspring is just useless and should be removed, personally.

[Kitty.]

You might be able to find out by contacting the police.

[ThrashAttack]

Formspring is useless

[The Morrigan]

If people can get in trouble for it then I'm sure a lot of people at my school will be in trouble, the updates on facebook of questions that have been asked/things that have been said is horrendous, I'm really glad I don't use my formspring, I don't know how the people deal with what's being said to them, I know I wouldn't be able to cope.

[ShimmeringFaerie]

Be respectful. Using formspring.me to bully, attack, harass or threaten others will not be tolerated in our community. Cyber-bullying is a criminal offense in many places, and we will work with local authorities to track down abusive accounts through IP addresses or other means if harassment is found.

That's from the FormSpring guidelines pages. So yes, they can get in trouble for it and I would personally report the things that they've said on your friend's page. Most people don't do anything about cyber-bullying (particularly on Formspring) because it's "anonymous" and they don't think anything can be done about it. But you have to sign up for Formspring and I assume put in an email address etc. etc.? So it wouldn't be too hard to track someone down. I would say that you should report it and hopefully they will track down the people who said stuff to your friend and people will start to realise that they can get caught.

[enjoydivision]

Nope, you can't get in trouble for what you write due to its anonymous nature, but really you should advise your friend not to use it. It's like a bully's dream come true; it's so terrible.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I've been on formspring and honestly, it's more than often made me laugh because so many of the comments are childish nonsense. There sometimes are helpful ones though but the nonsense outweighs the intelligent material so I don't think anyone should get worked up over it as it's just a lot of trolling, although unfortunately people seem to have an odd desire to continue visiting it despite it offending them. It's like accidentally stepping on a pin, getting hurt by it and saying how you don't like it yet then continue to step and re-step on the same pin complaining just the same.

As for getting in trouble, it's kind of hard to say because given their rules, they specify they will only contact authorities to use IP's if you are being harassed, does not say that for bullying or threatening. Bullying and threatening are simply "not tolerated". So it depends on whether they can get in trouble.

[The Morrigan]

Originally Posted by ShimmeringFaerie

That's from the FormSpring guidelines pages. So yes, they can get in trouble for it and I would personally report the things that they've said on your friend's page. Most people don't do anything about cyber-bullying (particularly on Formspring) because it's "anonymous" and they don't think anything can be done about it. But you have to sign up for Formspring and I assume put in an email address etc. etc.? So it wouldn't be too hard to track someone down. I would say that you should report it and hopefully they will track down the people who said stuff to your friend and people will start to realise that they can get caught.

You don't have to sign in to ask the questions so someone could ask without putting an email address down. So I suppose the only way is through IP tracking but that's not always reliable since my friend's IP address says he's somewhere in Manchester when he's not.

[Lullaby :)]

I think you can tbh The person would have to be traced through their IP so the police would probs have to do that. I'm not sure what would come of it if it was reported though, depends who you reported it to. They'd probs only get a warning but it may scare them enough to not bother anyone else.

[her_beautiful_mistake]

No. Would anyone get in trouble for saying that in real life even? No. No one would care. Maybe if you're in like year 7 and you tell your teacher that your friend said that to you then yeah they'd get told off for bullying. If I told my teacher that someone said that to me they'd laugh at me! So no one is going to care that she said it to someone online. The worst that could possibly happen is her formspring account gets a warning/deleted.

People don't tell people to "wrap their car around a tree" because it's a nasty thing to do. Not because they'll get into trouble. because they have morals.

[ThrashAttack]

They will find your Ip, find its location and drop several Bombs on your house if you violate there rules

[Jacksonian]

Hey there. What that post means is something bad. What I say is, don't go to such sites. You don't need people who hurt you for no reason.

[Musical]

It's like cyber bullying, so yes, you can get in trouble. And as a side note, nothing on the internet is completely anonymous. The authorities could easily track who did what.

[XOXOXO]

I'm completely against this website. I remember reading an article about this, and it said that if the person is a member and clicks anonymous, and if the message is reported it can easily be shown as unanonymous. But for non users, I'm not quite sure..
I'd send the link, but I cant find it.

[AmyIsLegit]

Thanks everyone for your input.

[sirjan xerdaj]

To some people Formspring is a form of TH and you should let them have it. Sooooo~ you shouldn't let it get to you. Start a flame war! HEHE!

[JohnDorian]

I really hate Formspring. It gives people a license to be an ass to whomever they want and be safe from the reprecussions. So yes, it would be considered cyberbulling if it weren't anonymous, unfortunately.

[BabyIndia]

Supposly I'm not sure on how true this is, so don't qoute me. But I heard/read somewhere a while back that every person that has ever posted on there is going to be reveled. Not sure how they will do it like, but I hope it does. The amount of shit pardon my french, that goes on through there, and the stuff that gets said, is somethings not only upsetting but sick and vile.

I really do hope it does happen because I'm getting blamed for posting things on their annoymusly when I always leave my name, and it's caused alot of crap for me, and it's causing a lot of problems for a freind of mine, people use it to slag her off and try and split her and her partner up, and then bring up the past and try to use it against her.

Anyone that uses formspring and slags people off but does it annoymusly, heres little message for you:

GROW SOME BALLS. SAY IT TO THEIR FACES, LEAVE YOUR NAME, OR DON'T SAY NOTHING AT ALL.


I HATE that site.
That is all.

[Double X]

If you are behind 8 proxies, yeah it's anonymous. But if the situation gets serious and they need to find out the ip of who posted what on formspring, they can find you. Unless you hide behind a lot of proxies...

[TheSmileFell]

It's anonymous, I find that site very pointless.. I'd stay away from it. I also find it sickening how people bully these days.

[BullyPreventionScheme]

I'm not sure why i'm posting since the questions already answered. But i'm tempted to join formspring, purely to laugh at the cyber bullying i get. Haha, the crap that comes OuT of bullies mouths can be a tiny bit true but its ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS 99% exagerrated! I find cyberbullys even more of cowards than normal bullies.
There quite amussing (Yes i am insane)

[Guile]

Originally Posted by AmyIsLegit

I don't know if anybody knows this for sure... buuuttt.

Can people get in trouble for cyber bullying over formspring?
Someone told my friend to wrap her car around a tree,and I posted on her formspring saying how they can get in trouble for saying that. Was I right? I'm just curious, because I don't want to be giving out false facts. Formspring is like a suicide magnet, and it's sickening with all the bullying..

No, in the United States you have the freedom of speech (excluding defamation, commercial speech, obscenity, and a couple of others). If you said "She cheats at tests" and someone else saw it (excluding the person it was said about) then it is defamation and you can be sued. You can tell someone to go die, say they are worthless, and bully them as much as you want without legal repercussion though, as long as you don't make physical threats, extort, or go beyond mere words. So it's completely legal to bully, in real life or online.

[abandoning]

ahhh
My 12 yr old sister just got in shit tons of trouble on forum spring.

even though all her posts were made anon... she had made threatening remarks to a few girls, who's parents then reported.

her posts were track via IP adress....
She got busted.

so YES, you can get in trouble on forum spring, even through anon. posting.

[Firesong3]

I heard about a girl who commited suicide after dozens of nasty comments were posted on her formspring thingy during the days leading up to her decision

[thewickedcity]

Honestly, tell your friend to just delete her formspring! I finally did, because even at 19 and 20 people have to make childish remarks. I finally posted something on my FB about how people can't be mature so I was deleting it. Rise above the bullying and have your friend do the same.

[Angeal]

Yes, Cyberbullying is punishable by the law now. I would like to say that its a misdemenor, but still the person who typed it could go to jail. You were 100% right

[Singing to the starlight]

Is there not a way of reporting abuse on formspring now? I expect you could get them banned, or at least blocked from her page. If it happens continuously and you find out who it is you can have them done for abuse.

[Rise]

Yes it is, any type of bullying using a computer is called cyber-bullying which is against the law.