From WCBS TV:
Parents who think their teens’ online conversations with peers are innocent may want to reconsider. A new study shows 1 in 10 of their messages discuss drugs or sex.
The messages are posted on common online message boards.
“‘Crunked’ is like the cool way of saying ‘I got drunk,'” said 19-year-old Lucky O’Donnell. “‘Scag’ is one of the harder ones to figure out and that’s heroin.”
O’Donnell knows the risks all too well. He went online to find out where to get cocaine. He’s now in recovery.
“Mostly it was, where are we going to meet up to get it,” he said in reference to scoring some cocaine.
I’m not sure whose headline that is, but when I read “largely” I expect 6 or 7 in 10, not 1 in 10. I agree that it is a problem, but it was a problem when I was in high school 35 years ago, except that you had to chat in person. It was probably a problem in my dad’s day too, but the drug of choice was Johnny Walker.
What’s different from when I was in High School, class of 1961? Now there’s an internet. We just had the telephone. We were interested in the same things back then, just like today.
This could be breaking news from 1000BC, just replace “instant messages” with “chalked on pottery shards.” Heck, look at the drunken rioting by the students at the University of Paris in the middle ages.
I was going to say–and exactly how are these different from teens’ offline chats?
I think ALL of you above totally missed the point. I, for one, am very thankful for the article coming out. It helps educate me on what terminology the kids are using which they think I may not understand. If I do understand what is being said, then I’m more likely to catch my son in the act and put a stop to it.
I love my son WAY too much to just make fun of something like this. Yes, we had some challenges back then when we were kids, but I don’t think they even come close to the grand scale of the internet. And I’ve been around a while. I’m in my mid-50’s.