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Do You Know What Your Teens are Texting?

textingParents are being warned that because teens usually text in abbreviations, just reading their messages isn’t enough if they want to know what their child is really up to.

CBS2 reporter Dave Carlin reported on all of the latest text message abbreviations, some of which are designed to be parent-proof.

“I use abbreviations for everything I text,” Amari Sims, a texting teen, told Carlin.

Sims believes her parents only know some of the slang typically used in the messages, such as LOL which means “laugh out loud.”

But there are other terms that Amari and her sister Ashtyn said they’ve never used but their friends have.

Some of these include:

“IWS” for “I want sex;”

“GYPO” for “get your pants off;”

“GNOC” for “get naked on camera.”

“CU46” for “see you for sex”

“I’ve seen things like that, yeah,” said Shelby LaPierre, 17, who was also interviewed by Carlin.

LaPierre said she stays away from such behavior and believes what her father, Guy, means when he tells her that what she does online “never goes away.”

When Carlin showed her father the list, his first response was, “Oh my God. I knew a couple of them, but not this many.”

For example, a single number 9 means “parent watching.”

“PIR” means “parent in room” and “AITR” means “adult in the room.”

“6Y” means sexy and “420” means “let’s get high.”

Thankfully, there is new technology that allows parents to receive any text their child sends or receives on their own phone for closer inspection. There are also companies, such as Bark, which are set up with algorithms designed to detect signs of sexting, bullying, and suicidal thoughts and sends alerts to parents.

“You’ve got to stay a step ahead of what kids are getting in to so you can protect them,” said Bark chief parent officer Titania Jordan. “Let them know that you know.”

Stay a step ahead by staying informed. Click here for an alphabetical list of text abbreviations.

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