Parents Guide to Lingo on the Internet
- Lynda Savage, M.S., LMFT, LPC
- Series: Fall 2007 Volume 14, Issue 3
There are many ways teens can communicate with family and friends online and through messaging. Unfortunately, there are also crafty strangers, including pedophiles and drug dealers who also want to communicate with your teen. They may seem like harmless individuals to your child, gain their trust, and then encourage risky behavior by sending links to unhealthy sites and so on. A big challenge for parents is to know what children are doing on the Internet. With so much access, it is no wonder 62% of teens say that most teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about. If you feel you would like to do a better job of monitoring your teen's media use, you are not alone. Below are some guides to Lingo to Warn of Parental Monitoring when your teen is on the Internet or messaging device:
POS Parent Over Shoulder
PIR Parent in Room
P911 Parent Alert
PAW Parents Are Watching
KPC Keeping Parents Clueless
Internet Lingo of Social or Sexual Nature
WYCM Will You Call Me
ASL Age/Sex/Location
MorF Male or Female
KFY Kiss For You
MOOS Member(s) Of the Opposite Sex
ADR Address
LMIRL Let's Meet In Real Life
HAK Hugs And Kisses
ILU or ILY I Love You
KOTL Kiss On The Lips
SMIM Send Me an Instant Message
SMEM Send Me an E-Mail
WUF Where Are You From?
WYRN What's Your Real Name?
A Few Emoticons
;) Winking
:*( Crying
#-) Wiped out, partied all night
%*} Inebriated
% Hangover
8-# Death
:->< Puckered up to kiss
Adapted from Parent's Portion of the White House Policy on the Internet
Compliments of Practical Family Living, Inc.
P.O. Box 1676, Appleton, WI 54912 (920) 720-8920
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute our articles in any format provided that you credit the author, no modifications are made, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you include Practical Family Living's web-site address (http://www.pfl.org/)on the copied resource. Quotations from any article are also permitted with credit to the author and citing the web-site. Any use of other materials on this web-site, including reproduction, modification, distribution or republication, without the prior written consent of Practical Family Living, Inc., is strictly prohibited.
