Sue Scheff: Teen Chat Decoder - Learn What Your Teens Are Really Saying

There is nothing wrong with admitting there is no way we actually know all the teen lingo and the acronyms they use.  However it is very smart to keep a few websites handy for when you are in doubt or concerned about a text or IM that you can't figure out.

Teen Chat Decoder is an excellent website that not only has lists of acronyms and abbreviations, it has a search box you can type your questionable word/acronym in and it will give you the meaning.

As parents, when our kids started to use the Internet more and more, we did what any good parent would do – we monitored their online activity.

We reviewed their browser history, or some parental control software product like PC Tattletale. But it was really frustrating when we found that our kids used abbreviations and acronyms in when chatting online or via their cell phones.

Now some acronyms are pretty easy to figure out, like “LOL” (Laugh Out Loud), but many made no sense at all – unless you were 15!

So several years ago we put together what would eventually become the largest “Teen Acronym Only” database on the net. Teen Chat Decoder was designed to help parents understand what their kids were “really” saying online and to help keep them safe.
 

Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens!

Read more.

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