Like many mums and dads here on the east coast, you must be concerned about technology and the dangers it poses to your child. Over the past year or so, stories about paedophiles luring little ones in chat rooms via cellphones and the internet have come to light. This is how you can protect your child.

Knowledge and awareness is everything. That’s why The Guardian* has kindly provided ECR Life readers with the following advice:

Although there’re many parents today who’ve been able to keep up with the ever changing technology, I’m almost certain that the majority of parents are “challenged” when it comes to the ever-changing and sometimes very strange language teenagers and children use when texting.

We encourage parents to be learn more and become more involved in social networking sites such as MXIT but the challenge comes in when your children use abbreviations that mean nothing to you. These abbreviations could be harmless but in some cases they can indicate that someone is trying to arrange a face to face meeting or your child is warning someone that you are in the room.

We have included some abbreviations to watch out for and the full list can be found on our website www.the-guardian.co.za .

121 = One-to-one (private chat initiation)

143 = I love you

420 = Let’s get high or means “Marijuana”

9 = Parent is watching

AITR = Adult in the room

A/S/L = Age/Sex/Location

A/S/L/A = Age/Sex/Location/Availability

B9 = Boss is watching

BYOB = Bring your own beer

CD9 = Code 9, meaning parents are around

CT = Can’t Talk

D46 = Down for sex?

E = Ecstasy

F = Female

FYEO = For your eyes only

IGHT = I got high tonight

KO(T)L = Kiss on (the) lips

LGH = Let’s get high

LH6 = Let’s have sex

LHSX = Let’s have sex

LIK = meaning liquor

LMIRL = Lets meet in real life

MorF = Male or Female?

MOS = Mother over shoulder

NIFOC – Naked in front of computer

P911 = Parents coming into room alert

PAW = Parents are watching

PIR = Parents in room

PM = Private Message

POS = Parent over shoulder

PRON = meaning pornography

PRW = People/Parents are watching

PSOS = Parent standing over shoulder

RL = Real Life

RUMOF – Are you male or female

RX = meaning drugs or prescriptions or regards

RYS = are you single?

SOWM = Someone with me

TDTM = Talk dirty to me

WTGP = Want to go private

Forward this link to as many parents you know so we can help better protect our children.

*The Guardian  is a specialist child abuse investigation and training organisation based in Durban. Their approach is twofold. First the proactive age appropriate education of children and all adults who have or deal with children about child abuse to ensure better protection. The reactive investigation of all sexual and physical abuse against children with a strong view of reducing secondary trauma to the child. For more details, visit their website: www.the-guardian.co.za