CALGARY – Some parents in Airdrie are growing concerned about the content on a controversial new Twitter account, which lists anonymous confessions sent in from people in the southern Alberta city.
The creators of “Airdrie Confessions” ask people to send in their secrets via an ask.fm account.
The candid confessions are then tweeted out for the entire world to see.
“It just seemed to go really, really far with the things that kids said on the site,” complains Airdrie mother Nikki. “One said something about a boy who forces girls to have sex in his car in the parking lot… and he thinks he can do it because he’s a hockey player.”
Many of the tweets are sexual confessions, but some even hint at rape and underage sex.
The teens behind the page are a 17-year-old and another high school student who are remaining anonymous, but say they thought it would be a good idea to post some funny stories.
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Even they admit they are shocked by some of the content submitted to them.
“It’s not in any way supposed to be malicious or cruel at all,” says one of the teens. “We have even posted RCMP numbers and everything… that people can go to if they need to.”
RCMP wouldn’t comment on the page, but a cyber crime prevention specialist says these confessions could come back to haunt the teens, adding nothing online is really anonymous.
“There have been a number of cases around the world, one most recently in England, where a young girl actually took her life because she was being bullied through ask.fm” says Kathy Macdonald.
In just over two weeks, the feed has gained more than a thousand followers.
UPDATE – Friday, February 28th:
Police and school officials say they are now getting involved with the Airdrie Confessions Twitter page, due to an anti-bullying bylaw which includes online activity.
The local school board has sent warning letters home to parents, and RCMP say they are prepared to lay charges.
“There’s all types of legislation that can be applicable, so you do have to be careful what you write because there are a lot of laws that can be used to enforce bullying laws,” says Inspector Gord Sage, Airdrie RCMP.
On Thursday night, the account users tweeted that they may be finished with their page.
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