A picture — or an emoji — tells a thousand words.
Amit Kalley, the founder of the organization For Working Parents, has issued an urgent warning to parents about the secret meanings of smartphone emojis that could be used by children to convey “sinister” messages.
“The unregulated internet can be very dangerous for our children,” Kalley wrote on Instagram.
“This issue is too big to ignore and the Netflix series, ‘Adolescence,’ has brought it to mainstream attention.”
He referenced the hit streaming show “Adolescence,” which debuted earlier this month and follows the story of a teen boy — who uses secretive emojis — who is arrested for murdering his female classmate.
According to Kalley’s “periodic table of emojis,” there are double meanings to seemingly innocent emojis that could be used by teens to send secretive messages.
Cocaine can be denoted by a snowflake, 8-ball or snowman, while marijuana can be symbolized by a tree, leaf or branch. MDMA is represented by the bill emoticon, while ketamine is denoted by a horse and magic mushrooms by the red mushroom emoji.
When it comes to NSFW emojis, “lust” can be symbolized with the flame, sweating or devil emojis, while “oral sex” is represented by the brain or tongue symbols.
Certain genitalia, depending on sex, is denoted by eggplants, hot dogs, cherries or the peach icon, while anal sex can be communicated using the donut emoji.
While some meanings may seem like a given — the gun or knife emojis symbolize weapons and the smiley face with x’s over the eyes represents death or murder — others might need further explaining.
“Incel” can be denoted with the apple, bean, bill or “100” emoticons, while “Neo-Nazi” is symbolized with the hedgehog, lightning bolt or the numbers 1488. In addition, “anti-woman” can be communicated with the ghost or the goblin and monster emojis.
“It’s far from an exhaustive list, but it’s based on common emojis used to say something very different to what you’d think,” Kalley wrote.
Kalley’s table has gone viral and been adopted by local schools and police forces in the UK, according to The Telegraph, and one college urged people to educate themselves on the “dark emojis” that “every parent should know” following the success of the Netflix show.
“The table I created is far from an exhaustive list, but I wanted to include emojis beyond incel and misogyny, because lots of young people are groomed online into drugs and violence and lots of young people are involved in dangerous sexual behaviors, which they can hide from parents by using emojis and acronyms,” Kalley told The Telegraph.
“Emojis and acronyms change, so parents have to keep researching and keep asking the right questions. We need to normalize conversations about the online world with our children.”
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