
Phones have ruined the internet by saturating it with retards and their children. How can phone users be purged so we can go back to having fun on the internet?
Most adults have no idea what their kids mean when they use text terms such as "KMS", "99" or emoji faces with cross eyes, according to an unsurprising piece of research by BT. The survey of 4,500 adults was conducted by BT to raise awareness of Safer Internet Day. "Popular online slang and emojis used by children to …
> The internet was ruined long before most people had smartphones.
> <blink>Surely not...</blink>
<marquee> Oh yes it was! </marquee>
Perhaps we should focus on making kids resilient to failure and capable of dealing with conflict instead of pretending we can get rid of all the bad stuff in the world for them.
"parents don't have a resource to look up the slang. Perhaps a system of tubes could be created."
What nonsense is that? Sorry, but I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious, and I suspect the latter because the art of using search engines seems to be something dying out. Which I think is totally absurd.
So yeah: they do, it's called Google. The only thing, as with all things, is that you need to know how to use it. I find it a little awkward that you guys apparently couldn't find this, and I got it in 2 - 3 hits. I'm not even a parent! And for the record: even Bing helps out.
https://google.com/search?q=99+internet+slang.
Google gives you a huge box on top of all your searches explaining the obvious.
Bing doesn't provide this but it did get me to the www.smsslang.com website as a first hit which also explained the whole thing. Granted: not as conclusive (people had to vote on things) but it does give you one giant heck of a hint. Slangit.com was more conclusive.
Kids have invented their own slang for thousands of years. If parent's don't understand it, that's only because they haven't taken any interest. Much of the slang is highly regional, and so it's impossible to construct a universal dictionary. Just like much of the text-slang cited, which might be seen amongst one extended group of teens, but not in another. Though by its nature, stuff that's used on the Internet tends to get far more widespread use than stuff that's used only in school.
Teens are not the only group to have their own slang expressions. We techies use many expressions that most other people would not understand.
Kids have slang to block their parents. It's part of separating from them and getting ready to leave their childhood. Parents who get worked up about it have to cool off. Start letting go, because your kids are doing what is programmed in them to do: fly the nest.
Obviously one has to be alert, because the same brain changes also make teenagers unable to judge risk properly, but a parent who hasn't taught their kids to be skeptical and thoughtful by the age of 12 can't do much by feverishly swotting up on teen lingo from ages 13-16.
If you are failing so miserably that you need to spy on what your kids are doing you need a better plan. I say raise the rug rats properly and spend less time worrying about what they are texting.
Guessing most of the parents that feel the need to snoop were constantly having their parents pick up the "other phone" while they were kids. You did not like it then, it did not solve anything back then, your kids are not liking it now, and it is not solving anything unless your intention is to drive them away (which in itself may not be a bad plan).
Sorry, old bean, but nothing good is easy.
It is what you make it, and also; anyone can make kids, a much smaller subset of those people can manage to do it right.
I told my kid; I can monitor any of your traffic, but I choose not to because you have not given me any reason to do so. Works well, so far. Also, who pays for that device? You can take it and break in, and do any number of things because it is NOT your kid's device, it's yours. But then, why did you offer it in the first place? Most kids are not going to be meth-head, terrorists, so try not to over react before that is known. I mean, what did you try and do as a child? Your kids are about the same. They'll be fine. Let them have their secret language.
"Install RMerlin on an Asus router, and implement a script that resets the wifi password to a random phrase at 10pm each evening..."
Overkill much?
Just get a router that can block a range of IP addresses according a schedule, and block the range you allocate to your kids devices from, say, 10pm until 8am. That way you get to carry on watching Netflix or whatever after they've been consigned to their pit.
Enterprising kids will get around this. These are the children who should be rewarded by being allowed to live.
Wait. Did I say that last bit out loud?
A standard filter like you suggest cannot check that the kids have done their chores, homework, etc. It also cannot block devices on the nights when the kids aren't allowed wifi (which can change from week to week).
So resetting it daily to me is the best option.
Of course, this is on the kids wifi network... they're not allowed on the grown-up network where the password doesn't change :)
Why does it matter whether we can understand or not their messages?
When I was a kid in the late 70's/early 80's, my parents didn't eavesdrop on my conversations.
They were happy for me to take the single household phone to my room and chat on it with the door closed with my friends (as long as I didn't tie up the line too long!).
My friends and I would jump on our bikes and ride to the shops, or the park, or to local bushland with nothing more than a "don't get into trouble, be back by dinner". They wouldn't chase us to overhear our conversations we'd have while playing around or just hanging out.
If they did, they'd get the impression that we were going to bash someone (we didn't), or rob a bank for money so we could buy cool toys/bikes (we didn't), or build a giant robot (we didn't), build an evil kinevel ramp to jump buses (we built smaller ramps and jumped over wheelbarrows etc), have sex with the hottest girl in the neighbourhood (yeah right...), and so on.
So, since I'm not going to be eavesdropping on the kids, or reading the messages on their phones or emails, why do I need to be up to par with all the codes?
If the kids have been instilled with the right values and teachings, then you don't need to monitor their every moves and conversations. Of course they are going to make mistakes, get hurt, fuck up, as long as they don't kill anyone or destroy lives, that's part of growing up. Preventing them from making mistakes and doing silly things that'll hurt (cuts, bruises, even the odd broken bone from falling off their bike or something) is bad parenting, it'll lead to timid kids unable to make hard decisions or be aware of of deal with consequences.
If you've fucked up bringing up your kids (or they are just plain bad people - socio/psycho-paths) then it doesn't matter what monitoring you do, whether you know what they are saying or not, you've already lost.
Posssibly most kids (and parents) fall somewhere in the middle of this range, and at different times, various different management strategies might seem to be most useful to help them along, possibly even involving some degree of monitoring or whatever. Raising kids is a dynamic process, not a static one.
It used to mean a joke was so funny, everyone in the computer room (because that's the only place a person could use a computer) looked at you like you were a crazy person, because you couldn't not laugh.
Nowadays, though, people use it even when they're NOT actually laughing out loud. So it always seems sarcastic, or even downright mean. It's not a compliment to anyone's wittiness anymore.