Texting - Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons — Texting – Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Let’s start with a question: Do you know what “GNOC” and “IWSN” stand for? How about “CD9”?

“If it makes you feel any better,” writes Kelly Wallace, CNN digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family-related issues, “I had no clue, and neither did a number of women I asked about it,” proving that even the most involved parents struggle to keep up with today’s increasingly explicit slang.

Wallace recently unveiled a list of 28 acronyms that parents should know, now that texting and social media have become part of the new normal, and kids can’t seem to put down their cell phones. And this new normal looks more incriminating than parents likely prefer. According to Wallace, the terms on her list—many of them sexually suggestive—elude even the most cautious adults. The issue has drawn attention from experts who say graphic short form slang is just one of the many problems plaguing teens and young adults today, as they increasingly rely on mobile devices as primary modes of communicating.

Wallace makes note of typical phrases: “LOL” (Laugh Out Loud) and “LMK” (Let Me Know), for example. Some not-so-innocent, but common variants among teens include things like “GNOC” (Get Naked on Camera) and “IWSN” (I Want Sex Now). Others like “PIR” (Parent In Room) or “POS” (Parent Over Shoulder) act like secret codes, indicating to would-be texters the appropriate moment to refrain from anything that might get them in trouble. There’s also “A/S/L” (age/sex/location), used to initiate what is likely to be an inappropriate conversation between strangers. Less obvious but equally suggestive terms are “1174’” (Party Meeting Place), “53X” (Sex) and the aforementioned “CD9” (Parents Around/Code 9).

Explicit content isn’t limited to just texts. In recent years, popular apps like Snapchat, Vine, and Kik have come under heavy fire for their surreptitious, unregulated nature. Kik, for example, a free texting app, allows text and pictures to be sent without being logged in the phone history, making it easier for kids to communicate with strangers without anyone’s knowledge.

Wallace’s 28 phrases may seem like a generous number, but by the time you finish reading them, it’s easy to imagine several new, equally suggestive acronyms that have already replaced the old ones. If you’re just waking up to the fact that Generation Next is giving you the runaround, it may be time to learn a bit more about what your teen is (or isn’t) saying these days on mobile devices and web-based apps. See Wallace’s complete list below.

Some of the words on the list seem too ridiculous to be so widely used and accepted. The online world is filled with people pretending to be other people, lying about who they really are. Word choice can give teens – and supervising parents – an idea of the person who’s on the other side of the chat or texting app. The lingo is constantly evolving as new phrases and acronyms become widely accepted, so it is understandable that your eyes might catch some abbreviations that you are unfamiliar with. A quick Google search is sure to help, most likely by sending you to www.urbandictionary.com for more definitions and interpretations.

Even though the way teens communicate is changing, and increasingly hidden from parental view, it is still possible to spot the warning signs that something inappropriate or bad is happening. Recognizing some of these suggestive phrases is a good start.

28 Phrases You Should Know:

1. IWSN – I want sex now

2. GNOC – Get naked on camera

3. NIFOC – Naked in front of computer

4. PIR – Parent in room

5 CU46 – See you for sex

6. 53X – Sex

7. 9 – Parent watching

8. 99 – Parent gone

9. 1174′ – Party meeting place

10. THOT – That hoe over there

11. CID – Acid (the drug)

12. Broken – Hungover from alcohol

13. 420 – Marijuana

14. POS – Parent over shoulder

15. SUGARPIC – Suggestive or erotic photo

16. KOTL – Kiss on the lips

17. (L)MIRL – Let’s meet in real life

18. PRON – Porn

19. TDTM – Talk dirty to me

20. 8 – Oral sex

21. CD9 – Parents around/Code 9

22. IPN – I’m posting naked

23. LH6 – Let’s have sex

24. WTTP – Want to trade pictures?

25. DOC – Drug of choice

26. TWD – Texting while driving

27. GYPO – Get your pants off

28. KPC– Keeping parents clueless

Original Source of 28 Phrases: CNN.com

Probably.

The truth is, it is better to be safe than sorry, and assuming the worst is the best way to handle a potential security breach that compromises your valuable personal information, passwords, email addresses/usernames, and your privacy in general. The most recent breaking story about a data hack comes thanks to a small hacking collective in Russia that managed to acquire more login credentials than you’d like to believe.

Besides just having login information – usernames and passwords – the data are of course tied to the websites from which they were stolen. In such a massive, large-scale breach like this one, it is possible that someone dedicated enough can put together a big chunk of your personal life, all based on the websites where you have an account (and this breach hit many, many websites).

As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, think about how many sites with which you use the same username or password. There are probably other sites which were not hacked where those credentials are good. All the hacker has to do is ~~type in your info~~ write a little program to automatically try your login info (and everyone else’s) at any website he or she can imagine.

The New York Times has some handy tips, and here are a few more tips (or more info on tips provided in the article):

1. Don’t use the same user name/password combination for multiple sites. This will save you from future hacks based on the stolen data.

2. Don’t even use the same password for more than one site. Usernames can be easy to figure out — often times they are just email addresses. Using the same password is just like using the same key for your house, mailbox, car, office, and bank deposit box. If one key gets out and duplicated, it won’t be good.

3. Use a password manager. The benefits most definitely outweigh the costs, if only because the password manager comes up with very secure passwords (or passphrases) and helps you so you do not have to remember everything for all your different websites.

4. Speaking of passphrases (and if you don’t want to jump on the password manager train yet), use a passphrase and not a password. Words are in the dictionary, and easy for a computer to figure out. This is true even if you substitute numbers and symbols for letters, like in p!33A. A computer can figure that out in less time than you can add 2+2 in your head. What’s harder for a computer to figure out is something like: H1mnIw#$$. (I came up with that loosely based on a song lyric.)

4.a. Longer passphrases are better because they take more time/computing power to figure out.

5. If a site does not let you use symbols or numbers, be very careful with the information you provide to that site. Consider not signing up, using an email address specifically created for that site (or spam in general), and using a modified version of your name. It might even help to email the people behind the site and ask why their security is lacking.

Here’s the Internet Slang Parents Should Know

Is Your Information Part of the Most Recent Data Hack?

online safety