PLOS, G2G! - Do You Know What Your Kids Are Saying Online?

Hi everyone! So, I was browsing on my Facebook newsfeed the other night, scrolling through endless status updates about “I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!” and came across a post from a younger relative of mine saying she thought somebody on the show was “peng” (no it wasn't Willie Carson! Haha). I think this picture of the conversation will explain what happened next...”S” is my younger relative, and “R” is my brother that lives in Germany – the reason why I say that will make sense when you read it. Oh and I'm still “Liz”!

I briefly touched upon this subject in one of my previous posts (link here), where I mentioned a new “language” kids use online today. From time to time, slang words will come back in fashion (even though they'll think they're new) and other times, like “peng” they'll make them up. This can be extremely infuriating when you're talking to a younger person and you haven't got a clue what they're wittering on about. The website Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com) keeps a current record of slang words and can often include acronyms too. Users rate descriptions of words up or down depending on how relevant they are at the time. As of October 2011, the website had over 6 million definitions and it's still rising, so it's worth a quick browse at the least!

Another way people (mainly kids and teens) communicate online is with the use of acronyms. To try and learn all the different ones would be pointless but here is a list of the top 15 terms for parents to watch out for if they have kids using the internet.

1. AITR = Adult In The Room
2. P911 = Parent Emergency
3. PAW = Parents Are Watching
4. PIR = Parent In Room
5. POS = Parent Over Shoulder
6. PLOS = Parents Looking Over shoulder
7. PRW = Parents Are Watching
8. MOS = Mom/Mam/Mum Over Shoulder
9. MIRL = Meet In Real Life
10. S2R = Send To Receive (pictures)
11. LMIRL = (Lets) Meet In Real Life
12. CD9 = Code 9 - (means parents are around)
13. E or X = Ecstasy (the drug)
14. ASL(R P) = Age Sex Location (Race / Picture)
15. TDTM = Talk Dirty To Me

If you happen to notice your kids using any of the above terms online, if you are able to, it would be a good idea to check their chat history as sometimes, kids could tell you that the acronyms they're using will mean other things, for example, PAW (Parents Are Watching) could also mean “People Are Weird” or something else, so if you notice in their chat history that after the mention of the word “PAW” the conversation suddenly changes then it's likely they were talking or looking at something they shouldn't have.

I hope this quick post has provided some good info for you if you didn't already know these things. I'm going to try and get back to looking at more kids sites soon so if anyone has any suggestions then let me know!

Thank You

@Lizmundo