“IDC, dude. Her party is obvs gonna be Lit AF. Lol.”
Oh boy.
There’s something about acronyms, abbreves (that’s ‘abbreviation’ *ahem* abbreviated) and teen speak that makes us feel super ancient. And no matter how much time us parents spend on the internet, when you have a teen or tween, it feels like you’re always playing catch-up.
For the most part, it doesn’t matter. Aside from the occasional eye-roll or snide remark (“Mom, that’s soooo lame”), our kids go about their business and we go about ours. NBD, right?
Well, actually, it is.
While some phrases are completely harmless (albeit, utterly baffling to us golden oldies), others can be used to humiliate and target victims. And given what we know about cyber bullying, that actually makes it a pretty big deal after all.
Nearly one in two youth have experienced online bullying in the last four weeks. Which means that even if your kid hasn’t been affected by it, they probably know someone who has, or they’ve seen cyberbullying in action. This year, through its #RiseAbove conversation, TELUS is helping to raise awareness around cyberbullying. Their goal is to empower youth and to stop online negativity for good.
Whether your kid has been affected by cyberbullying – either as the target or the perpetrator – or is engaging in conversations that are way less innocent than you originally thought, knowledge is power.
With that in mind, we’ve pulled together some commonly used abbreviations and slang to help demystify their meanings and usage – and most importantly, to help keep your kids safe:
ABBREVIATIONS
POS – Parents Over Shoulder
KPC – Keep Parents Clueless
PAL – Parents are Listening
P911 – Parent Alert
IWSN – I Want Sex Now
GNOC – Get Naked on Camera
GYPO – Get Your Pants Off
S2R – Send to Receive (an exchange of explicit pictures)
LMIRL – Let’s Meet in Real Life
KMS or KYS – Kill Myself/ Kill Yourself
SLANG
Lit/Turnt/Turnt Up – Something popular as well as getting drunk or high
Bae – Someone one has affection for, some suggest it stands for “before anyone else.”
While it’s not unusual for teens to want to have their privacy, acronyms that aim to hide their conversations from watchful parents might be a signal that something troublesome is occurring.
Keeping up to speed with the changing vernacular of our kids is an impossible task. Our list is by no means exhaustive. Plus, as fast as we’re learning these acronyms, our kids are busy making up more to bamboozle us with. Learn other acronyms and slang terms in this TELUS WISE glossary.
It’s important that you’re engaging in open dialogue with your kids. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. By letting them know that you’re interested in what they’re texting (and with whom), you not only show that you care, but also open the door to a healthy conversation around online behaviour and habits.
If you need help managing your digital footprint, identifying or addressing cyberbullying, plus tips for parents and kids, head over to the TELUS WISE site now for some great resources.
This post is brought to you by TELUS but the opinions are our own.
I wanted to say LMAO but I can’t coz I realized the seriousness of these “abbreves”. Every generation has its own lingo like what we had when we were teens. Raising teens is made even more complicated by this cyber universe we now live. It leaves parents clueless on a lot of things and it is nice to be informed. Thanks for this article. Kudos to Telus too for raising awareness. The challenging part, though, would be how to snoop around our kids’ phone in the first place (if that is even possible) to be able to check on what’s going on in their world especially when their world is their SMARTPHONE!!!