CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - When you look at your kids' emails or text messages and find it hard to decipher - You are not alone. According to a recent survey, 95% of parents don't recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching.
Since most texting is confined to 200 characters or less, text messages are heavily abbreviated and often written in what looks like a secret code.
Here is How You Can Break the Code:
C: Combinations of characters and numbers found on the cell phone replace the letter. Example: 459 = ILY = I love you
O: Only using first letter of each word in a phrase. Example, if you see "NALOPKT" – Not a lot of people know that.
D: Decode messages using a web service such as: http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/
E: Encourage your kids to talk to you about texting. Tell them that they will not be punished if they bring messages to you that make them uncomfortable.
There are 10 text messages you need to pay special attention to:
1 8 Oral sex
2 PAW Parents Watching
3 143 I love you
4 182 I hate you
5 KPC Keeping Parents Clueless
6 LMIRL Lets meet in real life
7 420 Marijuana
8 ADR Address
9 ASL Age/Sex/Location
10 Banana Penis
If you cannot understand a text message, you can translate text messages from Leetspeak to English at the following site:
http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/
For listings of text messaging abbreviations, you can visit www.Netlingo.com.
