Family First: Cracking Kids Secret Online Codes
There’s a language used by kids for instant and text messaging, and it’s a lot more complicated than L-O-L for “laughing out loud.” While it can be used as an online shorthand to be more efficient when communicating, it can also disguise inappropriate conversations. To help parents crack the code and protect their children, I talk to Allan Kush of wiredsafety.org.
What is Leetspeak and who uses it?
“Leetspeak is actually derived from “Elite.” In the hacker culture, being called an “Elite” is a badge of honor, indicating that you have great skills and/or have accomplished some feat of notoriety within the community. Originally more of a short-hand than some cryptic code, Leetspeak as it came to be known was a quick language that people could use to converse with each other, a machine short-hand if you will.
Of course, as with anything of that nature, the “wannabes’ picked up on it as well. In time, other uses for Leetspeak were found. In its most basic form, Leetspeak is simply a letter/number substitution, substituting letters or numbers that either look like or sound like the portions of text they are replacing.
For instance, spammers will use variations of Leetspeak terms to mask the nature of their emails from the spam filters that are being used to block them. Consider the “Viagra” spam many people seem to be inundated with. If the spam filters are looking for ” V I A G R A”, a spammer may use a Leetspeak technique such as ” V 1 A G R A ” or ” V I 4 G R A “. While not technically Leetspeak, it employees some of the principles and defeats any filter looking for the original letter combination. There are literally thousands of Leetspeak terms being bantered about on the web.”
Why should parents be concerned?
“Parents already feel out-classed by their kids when it comes to the computer. In most homes, the kids and teens know more about computers, games, software and websites than their parents do. The parents readily acknowledge this, and most have told their kids as much! So, how should parents respond to this? Parents need to be actively involved with what their kids are doing online. Lack of knowledge of computers should not be used as an excuse to not be involved. You may not know how to play soccer, but that does not prevent you from attending your son or daughter’s games, does it? Parents should be concerned anytime their kids are spending a lot of time on the computer, especially if it is at the expense of spending time with their real life friends off-line. Each family situation is different, but online predators that are seeking children or minors know which “buttons” to push with kids. How to get them to isolate themselves from their parents. How to exploit some family disagreement to their own ends. Kids spending inordinate amounts of idle time on the computer contribute to this problem.
“Kids will normally use chat lingo and to some extent Leetspeak to make their keyboard time more productive. If you see ” POS ” on the screen, that is not necessarily a disparaging remark about the Yugo sitting in your driveway; usually it means “Parent Over Shoulder”, chat lingo telling the other person to not say anything they would not want mom or dad to know. So just because your kids are using chat lingo does not mean that they are involved in something dangerous. What you DO need to be on the look out for are some of the other warning signals: Insistence on their ‘privacy’. The screen suddenly changing when you walk by. Not being willing to tell you who they are talking to or what they are talking about. Being up at odd hours in order to chat. And yes, strange phone calls or charges on your long distance or cell phone bills. Bear in mind that many child predators WILL use chat lingo as well as Leetspeak to “hide in plain sight”. They can be grooming your son or daughter right under your nose and you have no clue. So active involvement and setting down guidelines for computer activity are essential to keeping your family safe.
If you see something on the screen that you do not know, stop your child and ask them “Hey, what does that mean?” If they have nothing to hide, they will likely tell you. You will have to decide within your own family how much of what is being done online is for you to know, and how much of it could fall under the realm of ‘privacy’. You must be emphatic with your children that ANYTHING they say or do online CAN and sometimes DOES affect everyone else that lives in your home. In other words, a danger to one person is a danger to all.
How do parents learn Leetspeak?
“Learning Leetspeak as a means to its own end is not normally productive. There are many excellent ‘chat translators’ available online. A group of teenagers known as Teenangels (www.teenangels.org) has an online chat lingo translator on their website. It currently has about 1500 of the more common ( and less profane) terms listed. Another excellent resource that covers this topic can be found on the Microsoft website here: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/leetspeak.mspx. Parents need a familiarity with the language that is coursing across their kid’s computer screens, but normally only a familiarity.”
How effective is parental control software when dealing with Leetspeak?
“Most parental control software will not handle Leetspeak well. That is because parental control software typically is configured to block specified websites or classes of websites, certain words and domains. Because there are so many possible Leetspeak variations for any given word, it is very difficult if not impossible to block all possible combinations. If your children will not cooperate with you in their online activities, then you as a parent will need to decide what the most appropriate response will be.”
Advice for parents whose children are using it?
“Kids will always be kids. Just as those who grew up in the 50s hung out at pool-halls much to their parent’s chagrins, the kids of today have their own unique place to hang out, and it is online. Kids today are connected in ways that many parents only fantasized about when they were kids. Social networking sites, text messages, cell phones, blogs, and bulletin boards … the list goes on and continues to expand. Parents need to be actively involved and take a leadership role in what their kids are doing, regardless if it is the local Little League Team or the social networking site that their kids are involved with. This means knowing what their kids are doing, supervising them and establishing guidelines and limits. The over-whelming majority of kids are just having fun. They will cooperate with, and actually welcome their parent’s interest in what they are doing online. Actually, it is typically only when a parent is clue-less and disinterested in what their kids are doing online that a kid will get suspicious when the finally take an interest in what they are doing. So, be involved and be involved consistently is key.
“Face it though, there are some kids that for whatever reason are not going to cooperate. Each family will have to deal with that situation individually and as it comes up. There are many things a parent can do to address this type of lack of cooperation. There is parental control software that can help. There are programs that will actually record and let a parent know what their kids are doing online. The latter type of program should only be used as a last resort however. It does not foster trust and respect between parent and child in most cases. However, if the child is not being the least bit cooperative, it is a viable option. Use it with extreme discretion.”
Any final thoughts?
“Like it or not, kids will continue using all the modern electronic means to stay connected with each other. Parents need to become educated in what is out there, and have a good understanding of how it is used and almost as importantly, how it could be misused.”
Comments
