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Ask.fm is the new explicit online playground for teens

Ask.fm is the new explicit online playground for teens

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Ask.fm join screen (STOCK)
Ask.fm join screen (STOCK)

It's tough to be a parent of an adolescent these days. Just as parents have caught on to the fact that some of their precious youngsters may be using Snapchat to send each other sexts, it turns out the teens have already moved on to another potentially scary online service, called...Ask.fm? That's at least the picture painted by a new report from CNET, which profiles Ask.fm, a Formspring-like question-and-answer site, and its 57 million unique users, half of whom are under the age of 18. The content users post reveals many typical teen-oriented topics, from inside jokes and gossip to puerile questions about sex. But like many other semi-anonymous places online, Ask.fm also features more troubling material, including posts on self-harm, eating disorders and bullying, and has been linked to several teen suicides in Europe. Ask.fm's founders' seeming reluctance to crack down on such content may be cause for some special concern, but the truth is, it is but one of many other popular sites over the years where kids grapple with subjects they may not be entirely ready for.