Last week I was at an ‘Moms Nite Out ‘event at the Riverside Square Mall in Hackensack, New Jersey and we had a ‘Parents Test’ on our table with some of the acronym’s kid’s use today to communicate using text, chat and Instant messaging. The acronyms sometimes called ‘Code’ or ‘Chat Lingo’- a language tweens and teens use to hide information they are telling their friends and don’t want their parents to know.
Many parents looked at the test and didn’t want to know what they meant; others decided to take the test. Most of those that tested their knowledge knew LOL – Laugh Out Loud and some knew ILU – I Love You. However, with acronyms like POS – Parents Over Shoulder or KCP – Keep Parents Clueless – most parents were clueless about what they meant. In fact, most were surprised and shocked that kids were using such language to hide information from their parents. However, those parents who took the test and had a child with, for the most part, knew the meaning of some of the acronyms.
This unfortunately validates what many parents say about their kids – ‘when to comes to technology, my kids know more than me’. In today’s digital age, parents must know what their children are doing online, how to use applications their children use and know what the ‘code’ or acronyms kids use today mean.
Today, more so than ever, it’s important parents understand what their kids are chatting and texting about and more so, what the acronym or code kids are texting means. This can be a clue to what kids are planning to do or what they are doing, i.e. engaging in sexual activities, drug use or just having fun. Don’t be in the dark about what your child is texting. The key is that you know what’s being said.
You don’t want to find out from your school principal that your child distributed child pornography and is suspended or have the police come to your home to arrest your child.
Below is a list of ten text, IM and chat acronym’s commonly used by kids. For a complete list of these codes register at GuardChild.
Sample Text Chat Lingo
- FYEO For Your Eyes Only
- HBIB Hot But Inappropriate Boy
- IWSN I Want Sex Now
- ILU, ILY I Love You
- LHS or 6 Let’s Have Sex
- POS Parents Over Shoulder
- P911 Parents Alert
- PAL Parents Are Listening
- ASL Age Sex Location
- KPC Keep Parents Clueless
If these acronyms are unfamiliar to you, you may want to visit our Sexting page and see what codes/acronyms kids are using to talk about sex. This will be a real shocker for most parents.
Parents may want to look at products that monitor text messages. Most of these products save text messages on their servers so even if you child deletes a text you can still access it.
We found Mobile Spyware to be a great product to monitor text messages sent and received. This product will monitor all text messages your child sends. It also has many other useful features every parent should have at their disposal.
