Kids Internet Safety – Parents Must Know "Net Language"

What is Net Language?

Net Language (Internet short-hand, leet, netspeak or chatspeak) is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols and shortened words are often used as methods of abbreviation in Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup memes rather than time savers. In leet speak, letters may be replaced by characters of similar appearance. For example, leet is often written as l33t or 1337.

Important facts to think about

95% of parents didn’t recognize common chat room lingo that teenagers use to let people they’re chatting with know that their parents are watching.

65% of all parents and 64% of all teens say that teens do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about.

Kids and teens love to chat in their own secret language on their computers. Online, they enter chat rooms, send email, texting, Twittering and instant messages using a series of acronyms, initials, letters, and secret words on the Internet. Internet slang has become widely used. These acronyms and their secret meanings are listed below so that you can interpret the words and what they mean for protecting from cyber dangers.

A Parents Handbook of Online Abbreviations and Acronyms

With SurveilStar Parental Control Software, you can monitor your kids online activities such as instant messages and email, but maybe you will feel completely confused for all the messages are shown in their own secret language. As a guide to get you used to Net Language, below are a list of the most common online abbreviations & acronyms, used by kids on the internet or texting. So with this handbook, you can innterpret the mwords and what they mean for ptotect their online safety.

Net Common Acronyms:

• ASL: Age/Sex/Location (used to ask a chatter their personal information);
• AAS: Alive and smiling;
• 143: I love you;
• BAK: Back at keyboard (eg. I’m back at the keyboard.);
• BBS: Be back soon;
• DD, DS, DH: Darling/Dear – Dear Daughter, Dear Son, Dear Husband;
• DIKU: Do I know you?;
• F2F: Face to face;
• FUD: Fear, uncertainty and doubt;
• GTRM: Going to read mail (leaving chat room to read e-mail);
• HB: Hurry back;
• WTGP?: Want to go private? (move to IM or private conversation);
• ICQ: I seek you (a computer program used to instantly communicate over the Internet);
• STR8: Straight (refers to sexual orientation or being free of alcohol or drugs at the moment);
• KIT: Keep in touch;
• LYLAS or LYLAB : Love you like a sister or love you like a brother;
• NRN: No response necessary or not right now;
• OTH: Off the hook (something really wild, hot or unusual);
• P911: Parents are in the room (meaning stop talking or watch what you say);
• POS: Parents over shoulder (as in parents are looking over my shoulder to read the chat text);

If you want learn more net acronyms, please go to Net Lingo website which has list of Internet acronyms so you can brush up on the vocabulary your kids use when “texting” their friends. Net language is not rocket science and some basic understanding will allow you to follow your kids' most conversations in this way. We hope this will help you an overview of the most popular online abbreviations out there, so you can learn what are your kids doing on Internet.

Decode Your Kids' Net-Speak

The Internet is an invaluable resource for your child, both in terms of learning as well as in fostering healthy social interactions. But the Internet also has a much-publicized dark side: Predators, porn, and cyberbullying are just a sampling of the unsavory situations your child can encounter online.

To protect your children from online dangers—while still allowing them to take full advantage of the wealth of learning the Internet has to offer—parents must be technologically informed and astute. Here, we list the most common net acronyms to help parents learn something they need to know about keeping their kids safe online.

F2F, or, Face to Face.

This acronym should definitely raise red flags for any parent that sees it pop up. Recent television programs have documented the shocking rise of Internet predators seeking to have sexual experiences with underage boys and girls. When (or if) your son or daughter begins talking about face to face meetings with someone, it behooves you to know exactly who that someone is, when and where the proposed meeting will take place, and why.

P911, or, My parents are in the room.

Now, this acronym has two parts. for parents and for we better talk about something else. Parents should know this acronym because it usually implies that the users are discussing something they don't want their parents to know. Now, you don't want your children to feel as though you are heavily breathing over their shoulder as they talk with their friends, make new ones, and enjoy these new methods of instant communication. Therefore, an open policy of trust is the best way to go about it. It is best to sit down with your children and express you concerns and have a frank discussion of the dangers that children face on the Internet today. That way, your children don't have to be afraid to come to you if they find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation.

Get an Internet Monitor -- SurveilStar Parental Control

The Internet is a fertile ground for stalkers, predators, pedophiles, pornographers, cyberbullies and other criminals waiting to take advantage of your unsuspecting children. Kids can keep much of their online behavior a mystery to their parents by masking it in a maze of acronyms, abbreviations, and emoticons. To learn what they're really doing and saying on Internet for protecting their online safety, a great parental control software is necessary.

Keep Your Child Safe On The Internet

As a concerned parent, if your child uses the internet, you need to learn all you can to protect your child and your family from internet threats & vulnerabilities. But you can't watch your kids all the time that they're on the computer, but it's helpful to have the ability to track their Internet activity when you're not around, as well as other types of computer usage such as IM chats and email.

If you are really concerned about your children's online safety you can install computer monitoring software like SurveilStar this is a parental control software solution and will help you track emails, IM’s, chats, social networking, websites visited, images viewed, etc.

To start an all-out strategic battle to protect my kids from online dangers, while still letting them safely enjoy the games and resources that are available on the Internet, SurveilStar is the perfect solution that can be used for filtering web site content and monitoring the web sites kids are viewing on the Internet.

SurveilStar -- Parental Control Software

SurveilStar Parental Control can block not only pornography, but hate sites, questionable chat rooms and other dangers of the Internet. You can configure SurveilStar Parental Control to block online game and gambling sites, and even make it so your children can only install and play computer games with parental ratings that you deem appropriate. SurveilStar Parental Control even offers a simple, easy to use set-up assistant to help parents determine what online activities (Web sites, chat, gaming and social networks) are appropriate based on your family member’s age.

SurveilStar Parental Control essentially records and tracks all computer and Internet activity such as; both sides of chat and instant messaging, web pages visited with screen shots of some of the pages, email, keystrokes, peer-to-peer downloading, and everything else. This recorded information is then made available to you, the parent, to allow you to keep track of what your kids are doing, where they are doing it and with whom they are doing it with. For protecting kids from Internet dangers, parents must understand the essentials of Parental Control systems, chat room and social networking dangers, interpreting your kids chat shorthand (LMIRL – let’s meet in real life, PAW—parent are watching), and much more. For the parents, the more common net acronyms you have learnt, the safer your kids on Internet.