Are You Concerned About Formspring dot me?

Are You Concerned About Formspring dot me? Formspring is a question and answer-based social website, launched in November 2009. The site allows its users to set up a profile page, from which anyone can ask them questions. The questions and their given responses are then published on the user’s profile page.

The questions can be asked with a user’s name hidden, or they can be visibly sent from another Formspring account, according to the asker’s preference. Users can however choose to disallow anonymous questions, and have the ability to block selected people from asking further questions, even if the asker has remained anonymous. Formspring also allows a user to link their profile with other popular social networking profiles.

It doesn’t take much effort to search Google for ‘formspring users’, before coming across profiles that can be accessed. In many cases, after scrolling down through the questions being asked, it’s not long before questions start to get nasty.

One teacher in the US writes:

Formspring.me is a very simple site. Users like my 8th and 9th graders create accounts, which give them a formspring page. If you or I go visit that user’s page, we see a box to type in with a title that reads “Ask me anything.” You fill out this box and it anonymously asks the user any question you can come up with. The user will then post his/her answer, along with the question, for all to see. Simple concept, right?

Here’s the dilemma: anyone who works with young people can quickly point out that anonymity nearly always breeds irresponsibility. This case is no different. While doing a little research, I was (un)fortunate enough to come across a couple of former students’ pages on Formspring.me and can honestly say that I will never look at those students the same way again. After only a couple of minutes browsing around, here are a couple of things I saw that set of alarm bells in my “teacher brain”:

Conversations on each page quickly degenerated into some general types of questions/comments:
“I hate you” comments were remarkably prevalent. I saw people calling each other names that I wouldn’t use around my closest friends. Moreover, the frequency of these comments was staggering. In a lot of ways, this site more or less encourages cyber-bullying, and does it in a public space.
“You’re awesome” comments are much less disturbing, but encourage a pretty self-centred view on life. For example, I saw a few comments such as, “Why are people judging you? You’re so nice!” Not surprisingly, the students in question respond with statements about how they are good people that don’t judge other people but that other people actually judge them.
Questions/comments about sex. Every question that can be asked about a person’s sexual history, preference, etc. is being discussed in public for the world to see. Like I said – I’ll never look at some kids the same way again.
This site allows a space for kids to do discuss these things in an uncontrolled environment without talking about issues with parents or teachers or people who may have a little more experience and wisdom.
Think MySpace encouraged risky behaviour? Looking at two pages on Formspring, I saw full names, cities, and cell phone numbers posted for all the world to see. At our school, we try to teach kids what information to put out there and to be responsible citizens of the internet. Apparently our lessons aren’t sticking.
Now, I’m not saying we should sue the website and get it shut down or anything like that. I’m not even necessarily saying the site should be blocked by school web filters. What I am saying, though, is that this is just another site that parents and teachers need to be aware of and, hopefully, talk to their students about using responsibly. I know I will.

The comments from this teacher would be similar to others. In New Zealand, there has been a significant increase in the use of this site, as its awareness increases. Parents are encouraged to talk to their children about the site, and discuss the dangers it poses.

Do you have some experience using Formspring.me? Do your children or students use it? I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts, comments, and questions on this one.