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A mum claims her teenage daughter tried to self-harm after being told to slash her wrists on a smartphone app.

Karlene Gorry said she was "horrified" to discover sick messages sent to her 14-year-old telling her to "dice dem wrists hun" and calling her a "chicken" on Tellonym.

That evening, the youngster from Rhyl attempted to carry out the act, but luckily was not too seriously hurt and is now being supported by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Now Karlene, a foster carer, who had already installed parental locks on her home internet and regularly checks her children's phones, warned other parents about the controversial German messaging app, which allows people to post and answer questions and messages anonymously.

Tellonym said they take such cases "very seriously" and have launched an investigation but claim to be one of the "safest communication platforms."

They said while they are experimenting with the right age restrictions for their services, they currently require users to be 17 or older at registration.

"The same was valid during the registration of the given user who claimed to be old enough," they added.

(Image: Daily Post Wales)

Speaking to North Wales Live, Karlene said: "My (biological) daughter has ADHD and autism and is already very vulnerable.

"Last week, I got a phone call from her school telling me she'd confided in someone that she'd self harmed the night before after being told to slash her wrists on Tellonym.

"I was absolutely horrified and shocked when I looked on her phone to see the sick messages she'd been sent.

"I’m usually quite good at keeping on top of the kids' social media/messages etc, I have all the parental locks on the internet, so how I managed to miss this one is beyond me, but I did. You think you have it all under control but you don't.

"I now have to live with the fact that my child has had this app for a while with other kids messaging her telling her to self-harm and knowing that the outcome was that she unfortunately did.

"Thankfully she's fine but it could have ended up being a lot worse. I can’t even begin to imagine."

(Image: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire)

Karlene added: "It’s hard trying to explain to a child who has ADHDand autism not to listen to what other kids say.

"There are supposed to be age restrictions on this app, but it's so easy for youngsters to get around this.

"Personally, I think all social media should only be available to people over 18.

"The internet is a scary place that can have a huge impact on a youngster's mental health."

What Tellonym say

A spokesman for Tellonym said: "We take such a case very seriously and started an investigation.

"What we already found out that this was definitely no case of cyberbullying on Tellonym, we screened her received messages and only found two messages that could be considered as inappropriate including the one provided in the screenshot - which have been sent with a time difference of around a month between each other.

"...the user actively received messages over a time period of three months on Tellonym.

"In fact, the user received significantly more compliments and other positive messages with more than 15% of all her messages complimenting her.

"Tellonym was designed in a way that allows every user to stop toxic behavior before it has the ability to spread - all sent anonymous messages are initially private and only visible to the receiver who then can report the message, block the sender or just ignore it.

"In fact, most potentially toxic messages are already blocked before the receiver is able to see them.

"We are very proud of our extensive language filters that learn with every decision taken by our huge community of content moderators.

"The strength of those filters can be adjusted by parents within the app and are protected by a safety code, which we outline... through our info page.

"In this case, there were no actions taken by the users' parents.

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"Additionally, we invest heavily in great customer support that weeds out harassing users and is happy to answer all questions from concerned parents, law enforcement agents, and users.

"In any case, users under the age of maturity need to have consent from their parents and confirm that multiple times during registration. We recommend every parent to keep track of any internet usage of their teenagers.

"All those efforts combined lead to a healthy worldwide community with strongly declining rates of toxic messages which are way less than 1% of total messages (of which we already block - 75% automatically).

"We are confident in claiming to be one of the safest communication platforms - especially under those that have anonymous messaging features.

"In Germany, where more than 10% of the teenage population are active Tellonym users, we are not only bringing teenagers closer together but are also able to support nationwide initiatives, like in a case of the German health ministerium that educates teenagers about sexual diseases by answering questions on Tellonym.

"However, we take any kind of self harm very serious and are going to further work hard on prevention methods."

What is Tellonym?

Tellonym is an anonymous messaging app that was launched on iOS and Android in 2016.

It's available for free on both the App Store and the Google Play Store and claims to have over eight million users around the world.

Billing itself as "the most honest place on the internet", it requires the poster of a comment or question to send out a link to their contacts. They then answer, anonymously, giving their thoughts.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The app says: "Tellonym is a simple way to feel closer to your friends. Learn more about them, see what they're talking about and finally hear their honest opinions."

Developed by Callosum Software, the app does have a page on its website dedicated to giving parents information.

Their website says it was "built having the mental health of our society in mind" and make it "super easy for parents to control the protection level of their teenagers with simple, yet powerful tools."

But it has attracted controversy in recent years with some reviewers describing it as "dangerous" and urging others to delete it.