A website linked to the suicide of teenager Hannah Smith has said the company does “not condone bullying of any kind” after several major companies decided to withdraw advertising from the site.
Specsavers, Vodafone, Laura Ashley and charity Save the Children have all pulled ads from ask.fm.
Hannah, 14, was found hanged on Friday after being bullied on the website.
Ask.fm said in a statement that the company, founded by Mark and Ilja Terebin, wanted to “reassure all users and parents of users that we are committed to ensuring that our site is a safe environment”.
The statement added: “We do not condone bullying of any kind, or any form of unacceptable use of our site.”
Ask.fm described the teenager’s death as a “true tragedy” and said they had been speaking to Leicestershire Police since the incident.
They went on to say that various measures had been implemented over the past few months to continue improving users’ safety, and improved reporting policies have been put in place.
“We have been working with experts at the UK’s Safer Internet Centre, and thus the wider EU InSafe organisation, and are in constant discussions with them regarding our privacy and safety policies and the ways in which we may be able to enhance them.
“This is an ongoing activity, which Ask.fm is wholly committed to,” the statement said.
A Specsavers spokesman said the company had instructed ask.fm to remove all of its adverts from the site due to “deep concerns over cyberbullying”.
Save the Children said: “We put the welfare of children first and, as a result of the tragic case of Hannah Smith, we no longer advertise on ask.fm.”
Earlier, the Prime Minister said internet users should boycott “vile” websites which allow cyberbullying to avoid more deaths of young people who receive abuse online.
David Cameron said website operators must “step up to the plate” to ensure users are protected.
Hannah’s father, David Smith, said those who run the website should face murder or manslaughter charges and called for more regulation of social networking sites.
Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Salford, Mr Cameron said: “The people that operate these websites have got to step up to the plate and show some responsibility in the way that they run these websites.
“Just because someone does something online, it doesn’t mean they’re above the law. If you incite someone to do harm, if you incite violence, that is breaking the law, whether that is online or offline.”
The company said the site contains safety features which are in line with, if not better than, other social networking sites.
It added: “The vast majority of our users are very happy teenagers, who use Ask.fm to converse with their peers around the world about the things that interest them.”