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Most teenagers will not regret sharing this article, study says

If you are between 13 and 18 years old and you’ve shared an article on social media today, you probably don’t regret it, according to a recent study.

An online study by YouGov for Ask.fm of 2,905 respondents, among 1,060 in the U.S., concluded that 79 percent of teens rarely worry about their posts on social media. Digital behavior is becoming a causal extension of everyday life for teens, the study said.

“Teens have grown up online; it is core to how they communicate with the outside world on a daily basis, so it’s understandable most feel they have nothing to hide or regret when it comes to their digital behavior,” Catherine Teitelbaum, chief trust and safety officer at Ask.fm, said in a statement.

Sixty-one percent of teens in the U.S. say they don’t worry about their parents seeing their online behavior. Forty-five percent are motivated to post certain things based on whether certain individuals – including friends, significant others or crushes­ – see their posts. Close to the same number, 43 percent, say they write certain posts to make themselves seem cute, funny, or sexy. And 40 percent of respondents said a chief motivator to post was thinking about how many likes or comments a post would receive.

Findings also showed that 15 percent of respondents experienced cyberbullying, while 39 percent said they were bullied in the physical world. Nearly all respondents said social media platforms should hold online bullies accountable, with only five percent saying platforms should not respond.