The Nebraska Attorney General's Office sends out a newsletter called The Consumer Advocate. I wound up on their mailing list when Lexis-Nexis had that nasty security breach (which, since I use the Lexis-Nexis database for school stuff, might have compromised my identity, not that it was "secure" in the sense that they like to push).
So, on the back page of their most recent scare rag (let's not kid ourselves) which is all about the "Internet predators" who "prey on our children", they have a list of "25 acronyms that are being used by young people today".
- 121
- One to one
- A/S/L?
- Age, sex, location
- CRBT
- Crying real big tears
- F2F
- Face to face
- FUD
- Fear, uncertainty and doubt
- ILU
- I love you
- IPN
- I'm posting nude
- IWALU
- I will always love you
- KOC
- Kiss on cheek
- KOL
- Kiss on lips
- LMIRL
- Let's meet in real life
- NIFOC
- Nude in front of computer
- NP
- Nosy parents
- OLL
- Online love
- P911
- My parents are coming!
- PA
- Parent alert
- PAL
- Parents are listening
- PANB
- Parents are nearby
- POS
- Parent over shoulder
- SWAK
- Sealed with a kiss
- TAW
- Teachers are watching
- WTGP
- Want to go private?
- TOS
- Teacher over shoulder
- WUF
- Where are you from?
(For more gems, they have a PDF with almost 200 of them.)
My question is, where the hell do they come up with this shit? Out of that list, I can only find three that I've ever seen actually used; of those, A/S/L is so idiotic it's a joke; I can't see why FUD should alarm parents; and NP doesn't mean nosy parents, it means no problem. Maybe next time they want to print this garbage, they should contact people who actually use the internet. Or maybe, if a parent's busy snooping in their kids' chat logs, it's time to ask their kids what they're talking about, instead of listening to people who have no idea what the hell they're talking about.
Oh, wait. That would almost verge on personal responsibility.
I agree. Every time I see POS meaning "parent over shoulder" I tell my 'rents that's not what it means.
Hey, yes those acronyms are funny but I have something to ask you. I am going to be buying a laptop for school this year (my loan is about two times what I really need for school) and I was wondering if you could help me out with picking one out. I know very little about computers and don't know what a good memory count would be or all the different gadgets that you can get with a computer. So any help would be appreciated! Just email me at my school account. THat way it won't be filtered out in my hotmail account...
Thank yoU!!!!
Teresa
A/S/L isn't one I've seen, but ASL is. MSN even has a custom emoticon for it.