Yet another social media site that our teens and tweens are flocking to and one which parents need to know about. Qooh.me allows users to ask one another questions anonymously. Think about that? Vincent Mabuza, left is the founder.
The site was launched four months ago in May, and after a slow start with only 8,000 users in July there has suddenly been an explosion to more than 170 000!
It is reminder of the worst of Formspring.me. Naturally I signed up. It is the only way to find out about these sites. It was very, very easy. Frighteningly so. In fact the site brags that it only takes ’45 seconds’ to sign up.
There is no age restriction. No privacy settings! I simply had to create a user name and a password, add my email address and I was in. Immediately I had 3 questions asked of me from random anonymous people and they were not nice – I could not and would not reprint them here, or anywhere for that matter.
Children, tweens and teens can interact with adults with no indication as to who is who and more disturbingly vice versa.. You can add a photo but who knows if it is you or not. The site provides protection for teens to ask each other anonymous questions! You can only imagine where this can lead.
To ask questions you don’t even have to log in or have an account. All you need to know is the person’s username or look up anyone whether you know them or not. If inappropriate questions are asked there is no way users can be reported or blocked and no way to know who has asked or answered them. Qoohme makes a bold statement: ‘The aim is NOT to spread gossip or bully and harass people’, yet there does not appear to be any monitoring or filtering and sadly and probably predictably this is precisely what some teens are using it for. Qoohme even admit the possibility of this:
This article is incorrect. You state that “I simply had to create a user name and a password, add my email address and I was in. Immediately I had 3 questions asked of me from random anonymous people and they were not nice – I could not and would not reprint them here, or anywhere for that matter.” The 3 you received were automatic standard questions. Qoohme has these to see if you would delete them or respond, and to get you started. How did you think you would have 3 questions before 1 second in? Next time research a little bit more before you write an article on a trustworthy website.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for explaining that the 3 questions were automatic. That is helpful to my understanding of the site. It does not however validate the website for me or make it ‘trustworthy’.
At least one of the 3 questions was offensive and inappropriate. The offensiveness of one of these questions in particular, and you will be aware of the one I am speaking of if you also received them, sets an especially distasteful tone for the site.
It is also a site that invites users to ask questions anonymously and therefore provides a protective platform for malicious questions and statements. The site does not seem to respond if a comment is reported and does not take down or intervene in the cyberbullying or trolling that I have witnessed my students experiencing.
Kind Regards, Renata
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