A new form of electronic communication that is becoming increasingly common is text messaging, also known as SMS – short message system – through cell phones. It is popular with kids because it’s cheaper to send a text message than to make a phone call and they can send their message out to many people at the same time.

It’s called short message system because cell phone screens are so small they can only display a limited amount of words. Kids use an SMS language, based on short forms and acronyms, that is also popular in chat rooms and with instant messaging. Cryptic conversations written in SMS lingo baffle most adults.

For example, here’s a short conversation in SMS:

how wz d pRT last nyt? Did U hav :)? Got 2 go, c U l8r

Translation: How was the party last night? Did you have fun? Got to go, see you later.

It is not easy for adults to monitor cell phones because unlike computers in a public area of a home, school or library, phones are personal, private, connected — and always accessible. As with the Internet, adults and kids use cell phones differently. Most adults see cell phones as tools, while kids view them as an integral part of their social and entertainment lives. Unlike adults, who find cell phones intrusive at times and turn them on and off as necessary, kids have their phones turned on all the time so they can always be reached 24/7.

Cell phone use by kids is challenging teachers as more and more students send and receive text messages during classes or use text messaging to cheat during tests and exams. And an increasing number of kids are being bullied through text messaging. Because kids tend to keep their phones on at all times, bullies can relentlessly harass victims at school, at home or even in their own rooms.

Any incidents of harassment that involve physical threats should be reported to your local police. These kinds of incidents should also be reported to the student’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) or cell phone service provider.

If a student is bullied through a cell phone, report the problem to your phone service provider. If it’s a persistent problem you can change the phone number.

Classroom lessons and activities:

• Ask your class to develop an anti-cyber bullying campaign for your school. Have the students think of a slogan, produce posters and plan activities that will involve all the whole school in the campaign.
  
  
• Are You Web Aware? – Text Messaging is a classroom activity for students in grades 8-10.  

Internet 101
Web sites | E-mail | Instant messaging | Social Networking and Virtual Environments | File-sharing | Text messaging