Is a harmless little peak of your child’s text messages considered spying? We often hear this question from concerned parents. Most teens let their parents see their Facebook pages, but in some cases kids have set up fake Facebook pages (see Faux Facebook Usage for more details).

Children are seemingly more private about sharing their text communications. Yet, it depends on your child’s age, their personality, and behavior. You can always ask to see their messages. If your child is reluctant, ask why?

It is important to set family’s rules for what is and isn’t acceptable text behavior. Remind them that any text can be forwarded to an unintended audience, and texts that involve drugs, sex, or other illegal things can get them and potentially you, into legal trouble. If you do decide to sneak a peek, be prepared to see things you may not like or understand. Children often use abbreviated language, which may look like Greek.

Remember it’s important to teach responsible text behavior to avoid their potentially exposing themselves inappropriately (see Sexting Defined, or 25 Sexting Acronyms Parents Should Know for more details).
Remember that once an image or phrase is out there, it’s out there forever and for whomever to see! As a precaution and to prevent these kinds of situations from ever happening, parents can monitor their teens SMS messages and emails with WebWatcher Mobile on BlackBerry devices and SMS messages on Android devices.

There are many acronyms and abbreviations used on the web and in text messages that are often used by teens and adults that parents should begin to familiarize themselves with. These 25 are among some of the more alarming and commonly used abbreviations that parents should definitely keep in mind.

1. MPICIMFP my penis is caught in my flip phone
2. 397# I weigh 397 pounds
3. CMPNSOR check out my profile on the National Sex Offenders Registry
4. 3N I have a third nipple
5. Tubesteak tubesteak
6. IICDTINLH if I could do that I’d never leave the house
7. EP18M eligible for parole in 18 months
8. AFHT awaiting final hormone treatments
9. PD/G/TC parents drugged/gagged/tied up in closet
10. 666 I am satan’s spawn
11. NTAW/M I’ve never touched a woman/man
12. TCP3 I’ve been on To Catch a Predator three times
13. HSGC high school guidance counselor
14. AMAMCF ask me about my cheese fetish
15. SC still chafing
16. GERE I have a thing for gerbils
17. NEED8 If it’s not at least 8″, don’t bother texting me back
18. EAT-U I am a cannibal
19. PIB-STV phone in butt – set to vibrate
20. HPIMPNSIM I have a popsicle in my pants. No, seriously — it’s melting
21. HWHGFSL Hit wrong hole; girlfriend still limping
22. BALL911 Call 911, sliced balls badly while shaving
23. DANZA I just had sex with Tony Danza
24. BJ2NITE I find the study of early American history utterly fascinating, don’t you?
25. HWH? Herpes? What herpes?

 Compiled list from esarcasm.com

Remember that once an image or phrase is out there, it’s out there forever and for whomever to see! As a precaution and to prevent these kinds of situations from ever happening, parents can monitor their teens SMS messages and emails with WebWatcher Mobile on BlackBerry devices and SMS messages on Android devices.

Yesterday marked a very important day for parents and teens. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) hosted an event called PowerTalk21, a national day to start talking about alcohol. MADD is also offering a handbook, which can be found on the MADD website, as an aide to help parents start this important conversation with their teens, and to stress the importance of not drinking before they’re 21 years old (the legal age of alcohol consumption in America). We attended the event in NYC where some very important people spoke on the importance of starting this discussion immediately, and right in time for Prom and graduation. Kimberly Earle, CEO of MADD National opened this discussion. Chuck Saylors, President of the National PTA also spoke on how important it is for parents to start addressing these types of conversations now rather than later. Dr. Robert Turrisi, Professor at Penn State University, lead a Parent Workshop on how to broach the topic with teens and stressed the importance of keeping this dialogue at the forefront of our minds. He shared with the audience some important findings on teenagers and alcohol consumption.

Fast Facts on Teens and Drinking:

• Teen alcohol use kills about 6,000 people each year
• 1 in 3 students in 8th grade drinks alcohol
• 1 in 5 teens binge drink
• 3 in 4 teens try alcohol outside the home before graduating high school

Some conversations starters for Parents:

• Do you know kids who drink?
• Have you ever been offered alcohol by someone you knew? If so, what did you say? What would you say?

“Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device, (a 40% increase since 2004)”- national survey from CTIA and Harris Interactive, this is a trend that will continue to rise in the coming years. Therefore, it is essential to properly educate and protect our children against; sexting, online cyber bullying, irresponsible web-surfing, etc.

Are you concerned with your kids mobile phone activity? Supervise them with WebWatcher Mobile on BlackBerry— and Android devices. **Coming soon to iPhones and Windows Phone 7.

1. 66 percent of kids living in the USA between the age of eight and 18 owned a mobile phone in 2009 – Recent surveys from Pew Research Center, Kaiser Family Foundation
2. Mobile phone ownership among children increased 68% in the last 5 years – NY Times article
3. A typical teenager texts every 10 minutes during waking hours! NY Times article
4. High-risk behaviors are more common among teens who engage in extreme texting- a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, study
5. Teens are more likely to text their friends than they are to communicate with them face-to-face – Pew Research Center
6. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month – Pew Research Center
7. According to a recent study by the creators of an app called textPlus, 43% of teenagers use their cell phones to text during class.
8. Mobile phone ownership among tweens has almost doubled in the last five years and the number of texts teenagers send per day can reach into the hundreds – Recent surveys from Pew Research Center, Kaiser Family Foundation
9. 75% of teens have a cell phone and 54% text daily and 27% use their phone to go online – WILLIAM J. BENNETT: ‘Sextortion,’ Cyberbullying, Texting — The Challenge for Parents As Kids Head Back to School
10. Teens who send more than 120 texts a day are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol or illegal drugs than peers who text less – a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, study

Of the top 10 parenting concerns, from a National Poll on Children’s Health conducted by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, cyberbullying was ranked #4 and internet safety ranked #5. Another important statistic to keep in mind is that the Centers of Disease Control found that a third of suicides among young people are caused by bullying.

The majority of these concerns can be put to rest with smart parenting and open dialogues with your child. When it comes to cyberbullying and online safety, parents can find peace of mind with computer monitoring software and can keep up with what their child is doing online with software like WebWatcher.

Top 10 overall health concerns rated as a big problem for U.S. children in 2009:

1. Childhood obesity. Forty-two percent of U.S. adults rate childhood obesity as a big problem. In 2008, 35 percent of adults rated childhood obesity as the top overall health concern for children. In 2007, it was ranked No. 3.
2. Drug abuse. Thirty-six percent of U.S. adults rate drug abuse as a big problem for children and has held at No. 2 since 2007.
3. Smoking. Ranked No. 1 in 2007, smoking continues to hold the No. 3 position since 2008, with 32 percent of U.S. adults rating it as a big problem for kids.
4. Bullying. Holding at No. 4, 31 percent of U.S. adults rate bullying as a big problem for children.
5. Internet safety. Continuing at No. 5, 31 percent of U.S. adults consider internet safety a big problem for kids, slightly up from 27 percent in 2008.
6. Child abuse and neglect. This issue, which was ranked No. 10 in 2007, holds at No. 6 and was rated as a big problem among 29 percent of U.S. adults, up from 25 percent in 2008.
7. Alcohol abuse. Up from No. 8 in 2008, 26.5 percent of U.S. adults consider alcohol abuse a big problem. For the 2008 poll, 23 percent of adults listed alcohol abuse as a health concern for kids. In 2007, alcohol abuse was ranked fourth overall.
8. Stress. New to the list in 2009, 26 percent of U.S. adults rate stress as a big problem for children.
9. Not enough opportunities for physical activity. Up one spot from 2008, nearly 25 percent of U.S adults rate this as a big problem for kids.
10. Teen pregnancy. Falling three places from No. 7 to No. 10, 24 percent of U.S adults rated teen pregnancy as a big problem in 2009.

Parents should watch this video immediately! Dr. Drew Pinksy, an American radio and television personality, board-certified internist and addiction medicine specialist discusses the upward trend in prescription drug use and abuse.

Dr. Drew on teen Rx drug use: wtnh.com

Quick Rx Drug Abuse Facts:

• Teen prescription drug abuse is a growing concern. 1 in 5 high school students has taken a prescription medication that was not prescribed for them by a doctor, and more teens abuse prescription drugs than illegal drugs except marijuana.”
• In 2008, 4.7 million teens reported that they had abused a prescription drug at some time in their lives.

Facebook, a phenomenal social networking site, one that has changed the world has allowed us to reconnect and stay in touch more easily than ever before. A powerful networking tool yes, but one with a dark side that has been getting some rather bad press, namely from parents with teens, who have begun to use Facebook as a way to bully and embarrass their fellow peers. There have been multiple reports of inappropriate usage of fake Facebook pages and of children lying about their age on this site.

Teen Trends

• Teens have been creating pages to taunt, or cyberbully, their classmates by creating “hate pages” designed to publicly ridicule by posting malicious content about fellow students.
• Teens create an alias page to prevent their parents from viewing their “actual” Facebook page, e.g., they have one page with a pretense of appropriate behavior because their parents have “friended” to keep an eye on what the post and who they’re communicating with. On another completely separate account, they have their “real” page where they aren’t friends with their parents, and are free to share whatever they like.
• An article on Mashable, touched on a survey of 2,000 parents and teenagers by TRUSTe and Lightspeed Research, which found that 72% of parents check in on their teen’s social networking accounts at least once per month.

Awareness Technologies Chief Strategy Officer, Ron Penna, comments “I’ve had many discussions with customers who came to find out after installing our software that the account that their child had “friended” them with was a dummy account, and not the one that was actually being used, and that without our software, WebWatcher, they would have never known.”

From a recent Patch article some best practices of becoming better at “Cyber-Parenting,” encouraged monitoring, and taking your child’s phone away at night. There were also some issues addressed and discussed among concerned parents and children about the dangers of the internet such as: “How to have sex” videos on YouTube, chat rooms on LimeWire and violent games like World of Warcraft.

Children are naturally curious especially during their teen years. However, it is important for parents to acknowledge that the internet hosts a vast array of both good and bad answers to their child’s search for answers. More importantly, parents should help guide this search, and help direct their children away from certain inappropriate searches until they’re mature enough to handle the content.
 

• Safety Tips from WebWatcher:
  • Talk to your children about appropriate postings and or conversations online
  • Use a computer monitoring software or mobile monitoring software like WebWatcher and/or WebWatcher Mobile
   
• Quick Facts
  • 39 percent of middle school students have posted photos of themselves on the Internet.
  • 36 percent of middle school students have posted their real names.
  • 28 percent of teens have shared personal information that they wouldn’t share in public.
  • 20 percent of middle school students said they don’t feel comfortable going to their parents when they are being bullied.
  • 24 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds have been involved in “sexting.”
  Source: Data from the San Diego Police Foundation

Social Networking sites can be a great way to keep in touch with friends and plan events. Although Facebook has announced that it is working toward creating a safer environment for its over 600 million users, it still has issues with hackers who access user accounts inappropriately.

We recently came across a couple of stories from our customers that reported this kind of problem. One in particular that their son accepted a friend who wasn’t exactly who he said he was. It turned out that the account had been hacked and was sending graphic and inappropriate message to their son.

Steps to avoid or protect against this:

• Be sure that your privacy settings are set as necessary, and on your facebook account
• Change your password often
• Report any abuse to your account immediately
• Use a computer monitoring software to track all correspondences

The police department can only investigate if they hear from you. So please speak to your children and report any suspicious behavior. Computer monitoring software like WebWatcher will track all of this activity in case you ever needed to provide evidence of the solicitations. The internet can be a wonderful place, but it has also increased the opportunities predators, so take precautions.