"Little Gossip" a website used by school children to anonymously gossip about others has been closed down due to constant "malicious comments". The site was criticised by an anti-bullying charity last February for having schools on its list of places people are able to gossip about.The owners of the site released a statement about the closure explaing their decission was due to the abusive posts which they claim is "something that we can not support".
"Voice without ownership means that a person's worst side can surface," the statement said.
"Despite taking extensive measures to prevent malicious and unwanted comments a minority of irresponsible people have continued to abuse the site," it continued.
The owners of Little Gossip say "they have not been forced" to close down and it is solely their decision. The former owner and creator of the site, 19-year-old Ted Nash from Cheddon Fitzpaine near Taunton in Somerset, sold the site after just four days as he found the volume of malicious comments too high to manage.
"It was 1 in 10 gossips that came through that I thought were quite malicious", "I did put in reasonable measures to stop people abusing it, but people find a way around it." he said.
"When you get 33,000 hits in the first hour, and over the next few days it goes up to a million, 10 per cent is quite a big number," he added.
"It was really difficult to keep on top of all of it.
"Somebody said they'd take it off my hands for a very nominal fee and I was happy to let it go - I didn't even cover my startup costs".
After Nash sold the site it continued to cause controversy and in December the new owners made a promise to stop people from being able to gossip about schools, but early last February the Beat Bullying charity said the site had not fulfilled their promise as 78 schools were still listed on the site.
Article by Michelle
