If you are Mexican or an idiot, look away now.

Hello and welcome to another of my rants. Today’s rant is about Formspring, which, if you are Mexican it is not where a form springs through your door one day telling you to actually go and do something with your life. Similarly, if you are from Essex, it does not mean that a form will spring through your letterbox inviting you get more chavvy than you already are.

Formspring is a website which teenagers use (including myself) to let people ask questions anonymously to each other. See, I do not have a problem with the whole using-a-website-to-ask-people-questions-online thing, but of course, this is open to abuse. Take this an example: the other day, I was asked why my back is ‘messed up’.  Now, obviously, some other people have had questions a lot worse than that, which I will not print because this blog is family-friendly. Still, it begs the question:  why do teenagers allow this to happen? All they have done is create an account on a website allowing them to get abuse. Its like going into one of those shops where they can sell you abuse. I don’t know if one of those shops exist, but you get my point, don’t you?

Yes of course the concept itself is a good one; people can ask things to other people that wouldn’t ask in person which is all well and good, but as I said, this is open for abuse. This regularly happens, unfortunately. What can be done? Well, obviously, the teenagers could delete their accounts, but this will not do a lot. We are now in culture where we can chat to strangers freely, and ask perverse questions to our friends. A Government watchdog trying to stop it, isn’t going to do a lot either.

I think the solution is that Formspring themselves could help here. For one, they could put an age limit for accounts – all you need to sign up is to provide your email address that you made when you were eight, create a username and of course provide a password to stop Albanian Mafia hit men hacking into your account and killing you. Of course, they will anyway, judging by the amount of chain mail that is going around now. 

So, there you go folks, here I am once more saving common sense. On an unrelated note to this rant, I’m getting more and more annoyed by my teachers’ inability to speak English properly. However, that will have to wait for another day. 

Until then, keep safe, and remember the internet is full of fifty-seven year old men from Iran pretending to be ‘sexy’ sixteen-year-old girls from London. You have been reminded.

-Dan.