In an effort to help parents monitor risqué teen behavior, the government in the United Kingdom has issued a guide to decoding the secret language used by teens on social media.
According to BBC News, 5,500 school sex crimes happened in country in the last three years. Peer-on-peer abuse and social media dating are two major contributors to the dilemma.
The language cheat sheet is posted on the Parent Info website, which is an initiative of The Parent Zone and Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
While some codes used by teens in online messaging apps are harmless — such as IRL for "in real life" — many include sexual content, like GNOC for "get naked on camera" and IWSN for "I want sex now."
According to London School of Economics, 67 percent of European children nine to 16 years old believe that they know the Internet better than their parents. Fifty-nine percent of them have social media profiles.
"As a parent myself, I understand how important it is to know your child is safe and that's why this new, online service is so important. I hope all schools take advantage of this new resource, which addresses fundamental issues like cyberbullying and body confidence, so that they can help protect their children in this digital age," said Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, reported the Independent.
"The rapid growth and frequent usage of social media have significantly changed the pressures and influences on young people. Adults cannot always catch up with the technology," said Tracey Oakden, head of the WHAT department at Matthew Arnold School in Oxford. A quarter of girls between the ages of 9 and 16 admitted they have chatted by a stranger, reported the Telegraph.
Children are highly vulnerable online as interacting with bad peers through social media is no different than having sociopaths as real life friends, reported Uthmag.
