Curiosity, vanity lure teens to social Web sites

When Billy Crawford learned in January that his friends were using Formspring.me, a new social-networking Web site, the senior at West Islip High School decided to check it out.

The site lets users send, receive and answer questions anonymously. "Everybody's lured in by curiosity . . . what do people think about me," said Crawford, 17.

The first few anonymous comments left on his page were positive, Crawford said, but it didn't take long before the comments turned nasty. "There were really negative comments about me and my girlfriend at the time," he said.

"You become obsessed with what people have to say about you. I don't know why," Crawford said. "Some people get really caught up in it."

While users can delete hateful or overly personal comments rather than sharing them with the world, many teens post them anyway. On Friday, the company announced new restrictions to allow users to block any anonymous postings.

Despite the negative comments, it took Crawford a while before he finally decided he'd had enough. That was earlier this month, when he received more anonymous postings attacking his character. While he didn't want to discuss the specifics, he said it was the final act that convinced him to close his account.

"I figured I really don't need this in my life," said Crawford. -