Do you like 8 with MoSS? Police defend bizarre sexting ‘code sheet’ for parents
Police in Northern Ireland have defended a ‘cheat sheet’ that claims kids are using slang like ‘NALOPKT’ and ‘KYS’ to hide sex messages from their parents.
The Newry & Mourne branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland shared the sheet of apparently common abbreviations on its Facebook page.
It claimed the resource would help parents translate “cryptic messages on your kids’ devices”.
The list claims young people use a ‘coded alphabet’ called L337, consisting of terms include ‘MoSS’ (Members of the same sex), ‘NALOPKT’ (Not a people know that), ‘CU46’ (See you for sex), ‘KYS’ (Kill Yourself) and ‘143’ (I Love You).
The cheat sheet was shared and roundly mocked by younger people, many of whom had never heard some of the bizarre terms on the list.
Translations for some of the terms appear to have been sourced from 12-year-old entries on Urban Dictionary, a website anyone can edit, which are not widely used on the web or anywhere else we could find.
However the police force defended the list – revealing it had actually been made for US radio show The Kim Komando Show, and was not actually based on real research.
A spokesperson wrote: “As a follow up to the text talk post just to clarify that this was an American resource and indeed some of the codes may not be being used here but it is something to be aware off if you see cryptic messages on your kids devices.
“Also prevention is better than cure so speak to your kids about their online activity, what they are using and respect the age limits of social media platforms – is it proper to set up a kid with a Facebook account at 8 years old?
“What is an appropriate age to give your child a smart phone / device and data / wifi access?
“There are hundreds of text talk codes – a simple online search will reveal what any codes you spot actually mean.”
