What if FiftyUps created their own testing acronyms? #LOL

A couple of years back I received an invitation to a seminar about the internet at my sons’ high school. At the time my boys were 15 and 13 years old. Both were on Facebook and had mobile phones so I thought it would be good to go along.

I liked to think that I knew what my kids were up to online but I was surprised by what I learnt. Susan McLean is a former Victorian Police officer and Australia’s foremost expert on cyber safety.

Susan was adamant that as parents we should know exactly where our kids are online at any time, like we should know where they are physically.

I have many friends who stay away from their kids online as they believe they are interfering with their social lives. I take the opposite view. I wouldn’t drop my teenagers at Martin Place at 10pm at night so why let them wander around the internet alone? In the cyber world, the brothel can be right next to the lolly shop and that generally doesn’t happen in the real world.

Susan gave us some great tips..like this one. If you’re looking over your child’s shoulder when they are online and you see the acronym POS, be wary. It means Parent Over Shoulder.

Texting is another area where we show our age. When parents txt, the spelling, grammar and punctuation are usually perfect. Teenagers on the other hand will abbreviate everything. You might think you’re tech savvy because you know what LMAO, LOL and OMG stand for but do you know these ones? (see bottom of article for answers)

• LYLAS
• NIMBY
• NP
• OIC
• POV
• RBTL
• ROTFLMAO

And don’t start me on emojis! Apparently you should be using them…lots of them…in every message.

Well maybe it’s time to get our own back. Time for some FiftyUp text acronyms. Next time you txt your kids or grandkids…throw a few of these in:

• ATD - At The Doctor's
• WWTKMO - When will these kids move out
• FWIW - Forgot Where I Was
• WSF - Woodstock flashback
• HGBM - Had Good Bowel Movement
• LOL - Living On Lipitor
• ROFL... CGU - Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
• TTYL - Talk To You Louder
• WAITT - Who Am I Talking To?
• WTP - Where's The Prunes?

(Ok, Here are the meanings of the ones our kids are using)

• LMAO – Laughing my Ass off
• LOL – Laugh out loud
• OMG – Oh My God
• LYLAS – Love you like a sister
• NIMBY – Not in my back yard
• NP – No problem or nosy parents
• OIC – Oh I see
• POV -Point of view
• RBTL – Read between the lines
• ROTFLMAO – Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off