Oct 27, 2009 4:54 pm US/Pacific
What Parents Need To Know About Sexting
Learning Texting Lingo Can Help Parents Maintain Control
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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These days, teenagers are pros at texting and sexting, the disturbing trend of sending racy messages and pictures over their smart phones.
CBS
These days, teenagers are pros at texting and sexting, the disturbing trend of sending racy messages and pictures over their smart phones. For many parents it's a tough world to crack, CBS station WCBS-TV reports.
Caren Fisher has two kids who love to text. Especially her son. "It did drive me crazy because when he texts me, I text back and it takes me so long to do it. I'm really not good at it. I'm still a telephone person," she said.
Kaci Kilfoile rarely talks on the phone. So how much does she text? In a couple of days, "like with all my friends, like 400, 500," she said.
For years, Kaci's mom had trouble getting her on the phone, so she had to learn from her kids. "I just had to do it. It took a little time but I had to do it so I could communicate with them," said Terry Kilfoile.
Keethana Ramasetti is a text expert and says to protect their kids, parents need to get in the game, and invade their teenagers "text space."
"Text your kids. The one thing you want to do is de-stigmatize the idea that texting belongs to your teenagers and it's sort of a secret world where they can communicate with their friends and they can pull one over their parents," she said.
Ramisetti said talk to your kids about the dangers of sexting, using scandals involving stars they can relate too, such as Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgins, who were both embarrassed over racy pictures that ended up all over the web.
Set times when texting is not allowed, and check your phone bill to make sure those curfews are being observed. And while unlimited texting may be appealing, go for the limited plan.
Finally, learn the lingo so you'll recognize when things get out of hand.
- IMEZRU is "I am easy, are you?"
- GNOC is "get naked on camera."
- KPC is "keep parents clueless."
- PAW is "parents are watching."
Many security experts say if your kids start demanding privacy, let them know having that phone is a privilege and not a right.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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