LG Launches Universal Translator for Teen Speak

It's no secret that texting has actually become more popular than talking on cell phones, and skews more toward the youthful set. Parents though, might not understand when a teenage child texts them with "TTYL" or "ROFL." LG has unveiled DTXTR (or “de-text-er”), a translation tool for us old fogies.

According to LG's press release, the translator offers access to over 2000 texting acronyms, such as the over popular ROFL (Rolling On Floor Laughing), PAW (Parents Are Watching), and ^URS (Up Yours).

At the same time, LG also announced the results of the "LG Mobile Phones Survey on Parents, Teens and Texting" which surveyed 1,000+ parents of teens who text as well as 1,000+ teens/tweens on their texting habits.

Some interesting (frightening?) statistics:

• Teens and tweens are sending 20,209 texts every second, or more than 1.2 million texts every minute, in the U.S. alone.

• 52% of teens say a parent reading their text messages is worse than if they read their emails or diaries.

• 32% of teens feel like they can say things in a text message that they wouldn't have the nerve to say otherwise.

• 31% of teens think parents check their texts.

• Actually 47% of younger parents read their teens' texts without consent.

Of course, without DTXTR, how could they understand half of the messages? At any rate, TTYL (talk to you later).