Dealing with abuse in your question box: delete, report, legal steps

What harassing questions look like and how they affect you

Harassment on anonymous question services falls into three broad patterns. First, direct abuse (attacks on your looks or abilities, or attacks on who you are as a person). Second, repeated harassment (the same person keeps sending unpleasant questions over and over). Third, questions that expose personal information or include threats.

Even when the words come from an anonymous stranger, receiving an aggressive message can cause psychological harm. The advice "It's anonymous, so just don't let it bother you" isn't realistic. In a 2001 review, Baumeister and colleagues brought together research showing that bad events and information have a stronger effect than good ones. Applied to a question box, you could say that even if most of your questions are friendly, a single aggressive one is more likely to stick in your memory.

That's exactly why it's important to deal with harassment through concrete steps instead of just enduring it emotionally. Below is a step-by-step escalation plan.

Step 1: Delete it right away and don't react

When you get a harassing question, the first thing to do is delete it. Arguing back in your answer or calling it out publicly on social media gives the sender a sense of success, "I got a reaction," and can become the trigger for the harassment to escalate.

Before deleting, save a screenshot just in case. If you end up needing the legal action described later, you can use it as evidence. Make sure the screenshot includes the content of the question, the sender ID, and the date and time it arrived. Once it's saved, delete the question from your dashboard.

For one-off harassment, deleting it may be all you need to do. If they get no reaction, the sender may lose interest. What matters here is the attitude of "dealing with it and then forgetting it," not "ignoring it." Trying to ignore something can sometimes make you think about it more, but recognizing "I've finished dealing with it by deleting it" makes it easier to draw a mental line under it.

Step 2: Use the sender ID to spot a repeat offender and see the pattern

If harassment keeps coming from the same person, check the sender ID in your dashboard. A sender ID is an identifier assigned to each source, and posts from the same source get the same ID.

If several harassing questions come from the same sender ID, it's likely an obsessive act by one individual rather than an organized attack. In that case, the efficient approach is to delete questions from that ID as soon as you find them.

If the sender ID is different every time, the sender may be changing their IP by using a VPN or switching mobile connections. Even then, you can sometimes guess whether it's the same person from patterns in the writing style or content. If they're fixated on a certain topic or keep using a certain expression, it may be the same person.

Either way, save a screenshot of every harassing question as soon as you find it, then delete it. The evidence you save will be needed from step 3 onward.

Step 3: Temporarily take your question box private

If the harassment doesn't stop even after you delete it, consider taking your question box URL private for a while. Remove the URL from your social media profile, and stop sharing it in stories and posts.

You may feel it's frustrating, like giving in to the harassment, but this isn't a retreat. It's a strategic break. People who harass sometimes want to see the other person's reaction (anger, sadness, confusion). When the question box itself is closed, they lose the means to watch for a reaction, and they may lose interest.

A rough guide for the break is 1-2 weeks. During that time, organize the evidence of the harassment and, if necessary, consider the legal action in step 4. During the break, if you use "Pause new questions" in your dashboard, you can stop questions from being sent even if the harasser bookmarked your old URL.

Step 4: Consider legal action

If harassment that amounts to threats, defamation, or stalking continues, you should consider legal action. There's no need to give up thinking "they're anonymous, so they can't be identified."

In Japan, the first place to go for advice is the cybercrime consultation desk at your nearest police station. If you call the National Police Agency's consultation line (#9110), they'll direct you to the desk that covers your area. When you go, bring the screenshots you saved (the question content, the sender ID, and the date and time). If it counts as intimidation (Article 222 of the Penal Code) or defamation (Article 230 of the Penal Code), the police may open an investigation.

On the civil side, there's the request for disclosure of sender information under Japan's Information Distribution Platform Act (formerly called the Provider Liability Limitation Act). The amended law promulgated in 2021 created new procedures, such as the "sender information disclosure order," that allow disclosure through a single procedure, when previously it usually took two rounds of court proceedings. Lawyer fees vary by case. At Houterasu (the Japan Legal Support Center, 0570-078374), you can get a free legal consultation if your income and assets are below certain limits.

Legal action takes time and money, but showing that "you can be identified even when anonymous" can itself act as a deterrent. For serious harassment, we strongly recommend talking to a professional instead of suffering in silence.