More than 84% of all parents say they believe they have their teenaged children's high-tech conversations pretty well covered.
But the truth is teens are finding ways around watchful eyes with new apps that let them text and share photos without their parents ever knowing.
Teens have created new codes for the texts you can see; codes you need to know. Some experts say your child's safety could depend upon it.
When asked to take a "technology test" about apps and teen lingo - some parents didn't score too well.
Carol Coleman was surprised to learn "LMIRL" means "Let's meet in real life," while another mom - Michelle Burgess - successfully guessed what "GYPO" means.
"Get your pants off?" she guessed.
According to SmartParents, a service that allows parents to monitor their children online, you need to watch for what your teens could be saying on their high tech devices.
"There's been kind of an arms race between parents and technology and parents are losing," said Gerry Polucci, CEO & Founder of SmartParents.
You may think you're on top of it, watching what your kids text, but did you know there are new apps out there that allow teens to call and text for free? They don't even need a data plan.
"It's scary in a way, just not knowing," said Coleman.
There are apps that allow people to "text" pictures, which disappear from the receiver's phone in seconds.
Teenager Hailey Marshall says though she's never sent a revealing picture, it happens!
"I'm not going to deny that pictures that are really risqué go through that, too," she said.
Twenty-eight-percent of teens report they've texted naked photos of themselves. What teens don't realize is that the picture isn't always gone for good.
"The receiving person can take a screen shot of that on their iPhone," Polucci said
Speaking of risque, the very latest chat terms are anything but innocent.
Take a look at a few:
- GNRN: "Get naked right now"
- IMEZRU: "I'm easy, are you?"
- KPC: "Keep parents clueless"
Polucci says teens are not alone.
"Sexual predators use these terms for much the same reason," Polucci said.
Tim Woda says an online sexual predator used teen chat abbreviations like "a-l", which means "age and location", to target his 14-year-old son.
Woda told police about the incident and the man chatting with his son was arrested and pleaded guilty to "Sexual solicitation of a minor."
"This particular predator had over 250,000 lines of sentences in code written in his computer where he was targeting and grooming children," Woda said.
SmartParents suggests you monitor the apps your child downloads and stay on top of the tech lingo. Odds are your kids are.
"The technology is so different to day than it was in my generation," Burgess said.
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