What Do Your Kids Do Online?

Do you know that there are companies that actually specialize in translating online slang, or "netspeak", into English? It’s true and not only do more pop up on a regular basis, but the existing ones seem to be adding new terms almost daily. Interesting, yes but why would anyone even care?

Actually, if you are a parent, teacher or any child care provider it can be very useful, it can give you a better idea of what types of conversations your child is having in their emails, instant messaging or chat rooms. Some of the conversations may appear strange but innocuous at most. This can be misleading when you are trying to make sure that your child’s time on the Internet is productive and enjoyable but safe.

You may have blocked the porn sites, installed a monitoring program and set up specific filters because you are a smart parent and want to keep your child safe. Unfortunately there is more to it than that; one popular trend among kids is netspeak or l33tspeak which is a little more complicated using numbers rather than letters, etc. Unless you are up on all of the current slang you really don’t have a solid idea of what your kids doing online.

Of course not all kids are online for illicit or clandestine purposes; many of them are using it appropriately. For example, those yellow smileys have been around for a while and frankly most of them are appropriate for all ages. They depict human emotions such as happiness or sadness, even surprise or amazement. They are a good way for kids to express themselves in a positive manner.

However, if they do seem to spend more time on the computer than you feel is necessary it can be a sign that they are not always following the guidelines that you set for being online. If you have already spoken with them about the amount of time they spend online and they continue to do so you may need to get a little tougher or ask them to show you what they have been doing. That is where knowing some of their slang or acronyms will help you; otherwise it may appear to be just a jumble of letters and numbers.

Also, when you start looking at some of their emails or messaging pay close attention to the other little cute characters, or emoticons, that are there, they are really cute and you may want a few yourself to brighten your correspondence.