Katie Couric: Decoding Your Kid’s Secret Texts

Do your children do XTC? When you’ve gone to bed at night, does your teen GNOC? Is a your child’s boyfriend or girlfriend pestering to meet up with your child “46”? Are strangers on the Internet asking your child WYRN?

You may not know what any of these acronyms are, and teens would prefer to keep things that way. After all, this is not a new idea: kids have long known that it’s easier to fool parents and hide drug use and sexual activity when by using a secret language. But that doesn’t mean you can’t decode this language. In the video above, I explain to Katie Couric what this secret language is, how teens chat online and via text message, and how you can decode these messages.

IM Aggregator imo Adds Free Voice Calling For Mobile Devices

Popular chat app imo has added free voice calling to the most recent incarnation of its app for iPhone, iPad and Android. imo users can send and receive voice calls without using cell minutes, though both the caller and callee have to have the app on their device.imo adds free voice calling, even on iPad

The imo app began life as an IM/ chat aggregator, allowing you to centralize all your contacts and chat with everyone in one spot on your desktop and/or mobile device. Group chat is still supported in the new version, as is Skype, AIM, GTalk, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Facebook chat, Yahoo chat and more. imo also offers the “voice IM,” which allows users to send 90 second voice messages instead of actually typing – kinda like an updated version of the Nextel phone/walkie-talkie.

imo isn’t the only group chat or chat aggregator out there, but it does offer a social twist: imo wants to encourage people to make friends through the service too. But don’t worry, it’s nothing like Chatroulette. It’s more like a very temporary bulletin board, where users can ask and answer questions just to see who’s out there.

AllThingsD has a great interview with the founders, brothers Ralph and Georges Harik, about their vision for the service. Otherwise, imo is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Messenger.

Have another app for free voice calling that you like? Let us know in the comments!