A CO Donegal mother has pleaded with other parents to monitor the 
behaviour of their children online after bullies told her son they wished he was dead.
Despite massive publicity both here in Co Donegal and across the country, teenagers in the county are continuing to use the website Ask.fm and are using it to taunt others into suicide.
In this case in Donegal Town the victim is just 15.
His angry mother says her son is so traumatised he’s afraid to go to school.
“It was horrible what was said to him,” said the mother, who asked not to be named.
She told Donegal Daily: “He’s left Ask.fm now; he’s no longer on there but the anonymous messages left for my son were dreadful.
“Somebody said he’d be better off dead. Somebody else – or perhaps the same group of people – told him to go kill himself.
“Ask.fm is like a playground for bullies and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. There’s no point going to the guards about it because they will never find out.”
She said she and her family had been left devastated by the bullying.
“My son is afraid to leave the house; it’s just awful,” said the mother.
“The parents of these bullies must do something about it. Parents need to take responsibility for what their children get up to.”
The heartbroken mum added: “Children need to keep off ask.fm and if it was the bullies sister/brother or friend on the receiving end if this abuse how would they feel?
“As for the parents I don’t think most of them if not all of them know what’s going on on their kids’ laptops of if their child is the bully or being bullied.
“My friend over heard two girls on the bus from Sligo on about a girl they where bullying who was meant to be their best friend. Do they realise how much damage they’re causing to the person they’re bullying? Do they realise if that person commits suicide its their fault for chipping away at that person till they can take no more. The ripple effect it has after. It’s awful.”
Earlier this week Facebook refused to remove the Ask.fm app from its site despite widespread concern throughout Ireland.