Dangers of Internet Slang for Kids
Why Chat Room Lingo?
Kids these days are learning far more at an earlier age than their parents did. Although most kids are introduced to computers in grade school, it is more typical that these kids have already been navigating the World-Wide Web for a long time before that in their own homes. This is progress and can be a positive thing, but parents need to be on top of what their kids are doing online at all times.
You might be like some parents who view the computer as a foreign object. Though it is a useful and mostly harmless object, it can hurt your kids if you don’t monitor what they are doing on it. Part of learning about the Internet is just getting online, looking around and using common sense. Take a class to become more familiar with the computer and cyberspace if that’s what it takes.
Online, kids have their own language when they talk with friends in chat rooms and on the boards (that’s message boards). Unlike the language they use with their friends every day, the online chat room lingo needs a translation. Call it Internet slang, text slang, or chat slang, all of those three, four, and five letter abbreviations have meanings and some will be defined here.
Why do you need to learn about Internet slang?
As you probably are already aware, everyone on the Internet is not who they say they are. A certain amount of mystery can be liberating when chatting online, but as discussed in one of my previous blog posts, “5 Guidelines for Safe Computer Use at Home” it is also a way for predators to get in contact with your child. Predators learn the lingo to make it easier for them to pretend they are a 14-year old boy or girl and attract your son or daughter, even if in reality that person is a 50-year old man.
As a parent, you can also learn to decipher what your child is saying to their new friends online. Some of the lingo borders on sexually explicit. If your kids have never been exposed to that kind of Internet slang, or the person on the other end shows an interest in them, that lingo can be used to lure them away from your home and you. You can also find reliable software out there to monitor your child’s activity online for you.
Internet Slang, Unmasked
Here are some of the more common abbreviations that kids use:
- POS – Parent Over Shoulder
- P911 – My Parents are in the room
- GAL – Get A Life
- CYAL8R – See Ya Later
- LOL – Laughing Out Loud
- ROFL – Rolling On the Floor Laughing
- JTLYK – Just To Let You Know
- ILY – I Love You
- SWAK – Sealed With A Kiss
- H&K – Hugs and Kisses
- F2F – Face To Face
- A/S/L or ASL – Age/Sex/Location?
- ADN – Any Day Now
- B/F or BF – Boyfriend
- G/F or GF – Girlfriend
- WTGP? – Want to go private (meet in a private chat room)
There are a host of other abbreviations and some are quite explicit. You can find a more complete list here: http://www.web-friend.com/help/lingo/chatslang.html. The previous list is just to get you started. Predators sometimes ask for personal meetings and for personal information about your child, so it is important to know what ASL means. Disgustingly enough, they may even consider your child their love interest.
Kids generally think they are immortal and that they wouldn’t be fooled by some one online, and using Internet slang is their own secret code to keep parents away, but don’t let it. They could be getting into more trouble than you or they realize and you can help to prevent it by knowing what they are doing online.
Come back in a few days and read about Webcams and Online Safety.
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for occasional reminders of other fantastic articles, reviews and parenting conversation.
Sleep Well!
raelynn @ Kidz Comfort
5 Ways to Handle Cyber Bullying
Socially speaking, going to school can be a minefield. Granted, your child is there to learn but school is where they spend the majority of their day and the reality is that they will have to learn to interact with other kids. Sometimes part of the social scene can include bullying. In this day and age, when some of this bullying is happening online, this distasteful act is called cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying is defined as the use of online tools to harass someone. The harassment can take on so many different forms. It can be threatening messages, unwanted pornographic material, hate crimes and impersonating some one else just to name a few. Cyber bullying is conducted through social websites, email messages, IM messages and chat rooms. The cyper bully uses these means to terrorize another person and harm them with or without laying a finger on them.
This form of torture has become a real concern. I’m sure you’ve seen such stories in the news lately. It’s bad enough when kids get pushed around and bullied in school by people who don’t like them or who want to pick on them for no real reason. Online, the audience is much larger. Someone who doesn’t even know your child could participate, just because they find it exciting. As a parent, you are not powerless. You probably know your child better than anyone so use that to your advantage and educate you kids about cyber bullying. Here are some tips to help:
- Talk to your child often. Frequently communicating with your child will alert you when something even slightly changes in their behavior. If your child is normally a happy outgoing child who turns withdrawn may have something going on. Talk to them about cyber bullying before it starts and let them know they can confide in you about anything.
- Keep threatening messages. If your child does become a victim of cyber bullying, keep copies of all “evidence” for possible future use. Your ISP can trace the messages and find where they originated. For most ISPs, explicit or threatening messages are against their operating policies and they may keep a very close watch for them.
- Teach your child how to deal with the situation. First of all, make sure you and your child do not respond to the messages. It will only provoke the sender. Getting into a fight is not going to solve the problem either. Ask your child if they know how the whole situation began. If your child is psychologically affected by the bullying, a counselor could help your child to deal with the harassment. And, as always, just be there for your child. As you know, a parent’s love and support does make a huge difference in any situation, especially a negative one. Amazon.com has a highly rated book to help with educating a teen on the topic of cyber bullying called Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn To Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly
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- Call the police. When the bullying and harassment take on a threatening tone or involves pornography, call or visit the police station and file a report. They can use their resources to find the offending person. Even if they can’t pinpoint the person who originated the messages, they can trace them to a household and investigate it further.
- Don’t let your child become a part of the problem. Many times kids think that talking bad about someone online is harmless not realizing that there is always someone on the receiving end who is probably terrified. Discuss the effects of cyber bullying and the consequences if they are caught doing it.
Cyber bullying is a very real threat to kids. It is happening on a daily basis and often ends in tragedy. It can obviously destroy lives. You can help by taking precautions to prevent it as much as possible and learning to handle the situation if it occurs with your child.
There are so many resources out there on the topic of cyber bullying. Here are some of my recommendations for teachers, parents and children:
Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age
Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying
Also, here are some great links to other cyber bullying resources online:
Come back soon and learn more about the lingo in chat rooms, in texting and other social tools.
Sleep Well!
raelynn @ Kidz Comfort
5 Things Kids Should Know about Social Sites
By now, you’ve heard terms like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter, right? If you haven’t, I guarantee your kids have heard of them or are currently even using them. These are just a few of the social networking sites out there where kids can meet others and create their own personal page to tell everyone who they are. Before letting your kids participate on these or any other social sites, let them know that with a few added precautions, they’ll stay safe.
No one wants to rob their child of some of these childhood experiences out there. It can also be hard for some kids to believe that anyone would be out to hurt them. But, the world can be a dangerous place. And, because they are not adults yet, they rely on you to educate them about how to be aware of what is going on around them. Child predators are counting on their innocence as a way to trap them. You can speak with your kids without scaring them. Just keep them informed of certain safety measures.
- Don’t give out any personal information to anyone. Kids feel excited to meet new people online, but it could be that the person posing as your child’s new “friend” is actually a sexual predator. They will coax information out of your child over time, and innocently your child will give them the info they want. With a name and address or even a name and a high school, a predator can locate and stalk a child.
- Don’t agree to meet with any online friends without parents present. Luring is the term used for online predators that use social sites to convince kids to leave their home and meet them somewhere else. It is much harder to catch the predator if a child goes out to meet them instead of the predator showing up on your doorstep. When a “friend” wants to meet with your child, always use your best judgment and always go along, should you even decide to let them meet someone they’ve met online.
- Avoid sexual conversations. A sexual predator won’t come right out and ask your child sexually explicit questions. They start by gaining their trust and then easing into those types of conversations. You should tell your child not to talk inappropriately and also not to tell their online “friend” what they look like.
- Always be honest. Pretending to be someone other than who they are can get your child into trouble. Acting older can attract the wrong kind of person and unwanted situations. Also, talking badly about someone else could backfire on them. Teach your children to remain respectful and honest at all times.
- Never ever give out passwords. Believe this or not, a friend could use your password and log in pretending to be you in a chat room or other social site. It might seem like a harmless prank but could lead to major problems for your child. Someone who is angry with your child could use their profile and say or do bad things.
You want to protect your child’s right to act their age, but take the proper precautions. Just remember to teach them to be safe in online situations so they don’t become a victim.
Here is a highly rated recommendation and great resource for families that want to stay safe: How to Protect Your Children on the Internet: A Road Map for Parents and Teachers
Come back in a couple days for more about Online Safety and Internet Safety for Kids. Sign up for our RSS feed, or join our email list to receive notices of new topics in our blog.
Sleep well!
raelynn @ KidzComfort.com
5 Guidelines for Safe Computer Use at Home
Some of you may remember that there was once a time when computers took up an entire room. Now, almost every household has at least one. Between our old clunkers and newer replacements, we have five computers! Even if you have only one computer (desktop or laptop) in your home and the kids have access to it, it will be worth your while to implement a few guidelines to keep them safe while on the Internet.
Everyone in your household values their privacy. As your kids get older, their desire for privacy grows and grows. If you have teenagers this is most likely a big issue for you now. When it comes to online communication, their safety should come first, whether they understand it or not. You lock your home’s door to protect your family, but unfortunately these predators have found another way to get in – through your computer.
How can you be sure to protect your kids when they are online just as you do when you are inside your home? Here are 5 important ways to make computer time for your children safe and give you some much needed peace of mind too.
1. Communicate with your children. This is one of the most important lines of defense against child predators. Open and clear communication creates an atmosphere of trust in the home. Just explain that the Internet can be dangerous and that certain safeguards are set up for their protection. This also means that you shouldn’t overreact if they slip up. Kids are naturally curious and a slip-up or two is to be expected and dealt with calmly and in an understanding way.
2. Keep computers in a common area. When a child is using the computer behind closed doors it is much harder to keep track of what they are seeing and doing. In an area where there is traffic, such as the family room or den, you can walk by or be in the same room while they are online. If you do allow a computer in their bedroom for school work, the door must always remain open while they are using it. This will usually keep most curious kids from viewing explicit pages since they know their parents might walk by and spot them.
3. Set up parental controls on computers. Kids of all ages know how to use the Internet now. My kids could navigate the internet and get to their learning sites by the time they were going into Kindergarten! Parental controls can stop them from (unknowingly or not) accessing pages that have potential adult content on them. You can also install highly rated software such as CyberPatrol Parental Controls 7.7
4. Teach kids not to send personal information to others. Some membership sites, such as social networking sites (among many other sites) ask kids to enter personal information to sign up for contests or just to use the website. When your child gives out any information about themselves, it can lead a predator right to your front door. There are many sites out there that are just a setup to gain access to your child. Your kids should ask you before filling out any questionnaires or forms online that require any personal information.
5. Filter email accounts. Email is a very common way for pornographic or other non-kid friendly messages to be sent. Allow your kids (with your help) to add their friends’ email addresses to their address book, but block all others. This will keep them from receiving and opening emails from people they don’t know and possibly seeing things that they shouldn’t. Safe Eyes Parental Control Suite
Online safety begins at home. What your kids learn from you will help to keep them and your whole family safe from online predators. Then, when they are away from home, you wont have to be concerned.
Here are some great resources from Amazon.com:
Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn To Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly
How to Protect Your Children on the Internet: A Road Map for Parents and Teachers
Come back in a couple days for more about Online Safety and Internet Safety for Kids. Sign up for our RSS feed, or join our email list to receive notices of new topics in our blog.
Sleep well!
raelynn @ KidzComfort.com
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