DISHEARTENING: Teenage Girl Commits Suicide after Cyber-bullying on Ask.fm

Hannah and dad, David Smith

Homepage of Ask.fm

David Smith, 45 and father of a British teenage girl who took her own life on Friday, has claimed that she was being “cyber-bullied” and abused by brutal messages on social networking site Ask.fm.

14-year-old Hannah Smith was found hanged in her bedroom by her sister Jo, 16 on Friday in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

 Mr Smith later found a note written by Hannah which read "I wonder if it's ever going to get better", the Mirror reported.

Sickening messages telling the youngster to "drink bleach" and "go get cancer" were left on her profile page, according
to other users.

Smith called on authorities to close down the site, and those like it, after stumbling across cruel taunts from so-called cyber-bullies that he alleged drove his teenage daughter to take her own life.

Writing on Facebook, he said: “On Friday morning my daughter was found hanged... I saw her Ask.fm account and someone had been telling her to die.

 “I have just seen the abuse my daughter got from people on Ask.fm and the fact that these people can be anonymous is wrong,” he said. He urged parents not to let their children go on the website.

He told the Daily Mirror,"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”.

He went on, "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".

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Hannah's stepmother Deborah Smith said she had shown no signs of the torment she was suffering.

"Hannah was bubbly, bright, cheerful and never had a glum face", she told the Mirror. "There was no warning."

What’s left after Hannah took her own life?

Mr Smith said Hannah's sister, Jo, is unable to go upstairs by herself since the tragedy.

He said: "I drink too much thinking it will help, it doesn’t. I keep a tissue in my pocket for the next time the tears come. The television hasn’t been on for 3 days, can’t bear to watch it. We have to go for walks regularly as we can’t bear being in this empty house."

Hannah’s death echoes that of two Irish teenage girls in Donegal, Ciara Pugsley (15) in Leitrim and Erin Gallagher (13), who took their own lives after being subjected to alleged bullying campaigns on the ask.fm site.

In the US last year December, 16-year-old Jessica Laney, was found dead at her home in Florida after users on social networking sites tormented her with insults and asked: “Can you kill yourself already?”

After the death of Erin Gallagher in Donegal last year, Mr Terebin, co-founder of the Latvian based Ask.fm, site, described her suicide as “a true tragedy”.

However, he said: “Ask.fm is just a tool which helps people to communicate with each other, same as any other social network, same as phone, same as piece of paper and pen.

“Don’t blame a tool, but try to make changes . . . start with yourself . . . be more polite, more kind, more tolerant of others . . . cultivate these values in families, in schools,” he posted on the website.

More Photos after the cut:

Her last post on Facebook before her death

Flowers placed outside late Hannah's window

The internet aint all sunshine and rainbows and it's indeed very sad when someone takes their own life for whatever reason. May her soul RIP!