‘Ask.fm boss doesn’t care that I lost my girls’

The mother of suicide victims Erin and Shannon Gallagher has said but for internet sites such as Ask.fm, her daughters would still be alive.

Lorraine Gallagher was reacting to claims by the owner of Ask.fm that teens often post comments about themselves to get attention.

Ms Gallagher said she was disgusted by the site boss’s claims, which she said were “disrespectful” to her dead daughters.

She also revealed she is seeking legal advice on the claims.

Ask.fm chief executive Mark Terebin said 90% of teenagers who claim they are being cyberbullied are actually posting the comments themselves.

He claimed children lack attention mainly because parents are doing other things such as watching TV, drinking beer, and reading the tabloids.

“When they come to sites like these, they start trolling themselves so that their peers start protecting them,” said Mr Terebin. “In this absurd way, they get the attention.”

Ms Gallagher has criticised the claim saying Mr Terebin blames teenagers while profiting from their misery. Ask.fm claims to have 50m users globally.

Ms Gallagher, from Ballybofey in Co Donegal, lost her two daughters in a seven-week period at the end of last year

Erin, 13, took her own life following claims she was being bullied on the Ask.fm site. Her sister Shannon took her own life seven weeks later.

Ms Gallagher said at the time that Shannon could not go on without her little sister by her side.

Reacting to Mr Terebin’s claims, Ms Gallagher said that, but for sites such as Ask.fm, her daughters would still be alive today.

“The internet is such a horrible place and sites like these allow people to hide behind a wall and throw all sorts of vile allegations against young teenagers.” she said.

“They are vulnerable and they believe what they read and go over it again and again. In the end it just gets too much for many of them and it pushes them over the edge.

“Why would teenagers write nasty things about themselves and push themselves to the edge and over the edge?

“None of this makes any sense and he [Mr Terebin] is just using this as an excuse while he gets rich off of the problems of teenagers.”

Ms Gallagher said Mr Terebin has never shown any compassion or remorse for the damage Ask.fm has caused to teenagers around the world.

“He doesn’t care that I lost my girls or that thousands of other young teenagers have been hurt by the vile claims on his website,” she said.

“He will have to live with himself knowing that he is operating a gateway of hatred that is only causing harm and doing no good whatsoever.”