The Tech Daily

LG today announced a new interactive website, LG DTXTR, which allows consumers - especially parents of teens and tweens - to decode what often seems like a foreign language: text speak. To support the new site, the company also announced the results of the “LG Mobile Phones Survey on Parents, Teens and Texting” which queried 1,000+ parents of teens who text and 1,000+ teens/tweens on their texting habits. The survey revealed that teens and their younger counterparts–tweens–are sending 20,209 texts every second, or more than 1.2 million texts every minute, in the U.S. With an increasing amount of text messages being sent amongst teens and tweens, LG DTXTR cracks the code, by offering 2,000+ texting acronyms and their meanings, so parents can learn the language their kids are using.

The LG survey, which was conducted by the research firm Interpret, also revealed that there is a privacy issue for teens when it comes to their text messages. For teens, text messages rank higher in privacy than diaries or emails: 52% of teens say a parent reading their text messages is worse than if they read their emails or diaries. One of the reasons may be that about a third of teens feel more comfortable speaking freely over text: 32% of teens feel like they can say things in a text message that they wouldn’t have the nerve to say otherwise.

While teens may dread their parents reading their text messages, the reality is that parents - especially younger parents with teens in their household - are checking their teens’ messages. According to the LG Survey, 31% of teens think parents check their texts, but the number is actually higher with 47% of younger parents having actually read their teens’ texts without consent.

Another finding from the LG Survey is that parents are increasingly using texting as a form of communication, especially among younger parents. While not as high as teens, younger parents are texting more frequently than older parents, which suggests a familiarity and ease with this technology among newer generations. Results from the survey show that younger parents are sending 25 texts per day compared to 9 texts per day for older parents. Given this increase, LG DTXTR helps provide a tool to understand the language parents may come across in their own text messages that they don’t understand.

Sexting, the act of sending a message via text that is sexual in nature, often times with an image or video, has been on the rise. With the rise of sexting, parents are concerned about the sexual content of their teens’ text messages, and the survey shows that a third of teens have experienced a sext message before: 62% of parents would be worried if their teens’ message was of a sexual nature, and according to the survey, 33% of teens have already received a sext message. With the LG DTXTR, parents can decode messages to reveal the true meaning of the text, ensuring their teenagers are not in any harm or acting inappropriately.

LG DTXTR allows individuals to type in a texting term, short message or acronym, which is then translated to provide the definition. Some of these include:

* P911 (Parent alert)
* RUSOS (Are you in trouble?)
* MOS (Mom over shoulder)
* PRW (Parents are watching)
* BI5 (Be back in five)
* 4NR (Foreigner)
* ^5 (High five)
* OICU812 (Oh I see, you ate one too)
* PU (That stinks)

LG will update the ever-expanding glossary through the support of site users who can submit their own texting terms, continuing to develop the extensive tool for decoding the short messages used during texting. Similar to the acronyms currently provided on the LG DTXTR site, users can provide new acronyms that utilize all types of characters found on a mobile phone keypad, including letters, numbers and symbols.

Users of the site also have the opportunity to win LG phones, with an ongoing sweepstakes promotion offering an LG phone giveaway every two weeks, until October 27, 2009.

The site was developed internally by LG and shared with the blogging community prior to public release to receive their feedback and provide an online tool that is effective for the online community. The LG DTXTR site can be found at: www.LGDTXTR.com.

Source: iexplora