Chat and Text Messaging Shorthand

Secure Family Technologies: The meaning behind text messages

When a cell phone is placed in a child's hands, the child is given access to the world and the world is given access to the child.
This includes when the child is away from home and away from parental supervision. What's more, today's cell phones are not just mobile telephones, they're also web browsers, instant messengers, e-mail terminals, cameras, and video recorders.

Much has been said lately about mobile phone safety, but most of this discussion has focused on the distraction that phones cause while driving. However, another reason that parents should be concerned about mobile phones is their connection with online sexual exploitation of children, especially teenagers.

Child predators are taking advantage of the easy access to children that mobile phones provide. Parents must be aware that the Internet predator almost always takes the relationship with the child from the computer to a phone.

Mobile phones offer child predators instant and often unmonitored access to children. And because a phone conversation is more personal than online chat, less grooming time is needed. Parents should carefully develop and implement safety strategies before providing their children with access to mobile phones.

Recent investigations on Internet predators show it is common practice to see mobile phones being used:

For constant communication with the child (day and night)
Text message the child throughout the day
Phone conversation throughout the night
Arrange face to face meeting with the child
As a “grooming tool” for sexual contact
Predator will engage in sexually explicit conversations
Predator will send images of pornography to the child
Predator will request that the child use the phone to create and share sexually explicit images of his/herself
Predator will suggest pornographic web sites that can be visited and viewed by phone
To identify the child and locate the child
The phone number itself can provide enough information to identify the child by name and address
Phone conversation verifies to the predator that he is communicating with an actual child (and not an adult or police officer)
Camera feature provides instant images of the child to the predator at his request

A safety strategy might include:

Begin a dialog with your kids about the rewards and risks of Internet use
Assess the risks and benefits of permitting your kids to have Internet access on their cell phones
Consider setting rules about the time of day, length of time, and people they may communicate with
Randomly check phone records and identify who your child regularly communicates with

Acronyms have always been an integral part of computer culture, and they have since spawned a new language on the Internet. It’s a language that our children know and understand well. The majority of the expressions used in text messages and chats are not acronyms, but rather shorthand used while text messaging or IM'ing.

This list all of chat acronyms will help you interpret your child’s online conversations. ^{Click the file below to download}