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(AgapePress) -- "GTG, QT ... PIR ... TLK-2-U-L-8-R!" If you're under the age of 30, this sentence makes perfect sense. If not, keep reading.

What it really says is: "Got to go, cutie ... parent in room ... talk to you later."

This new nonverbal lingo is basically a form of shorthand used to communicate in cyberspace via text messaging, instant messaging, blogging or any other means of wireless or online technology. Not only does it save time in a fast-paced world, it keeps parents in the dark when it comes to understanding their children's way of communicating in a technologically advanced world.

For a complete glossary of cyberspace shorthand, visit Netlingo.com

One aspect of this communication is social networking sites, more commonly know by their official website names of MySpace.com, Xanga.com, and Facebook, among others. A social networking site is "sort of a cyber combination of a yearbook, personal diary and social club," as defined by MSNBC.com.

"It's the way kids communicate today," said Al Kush, deputy director of WiredSafety.org. "[To them], it's just a nice, convenient, fun thing to do."

But that's not all. For some social networking site users, their frequent activity on the sites is becoming an invitation to crime and, in some cases, a death trap. Some are posting personal information such as their full names, school names, cell phone numbers and addresses, making themselves easy prey for sexual predators. In a sense, teens are baiting their own hooks, trolling for friends but attracting sharks.

The sharks are stalking MySpace.com, "the second largest website of any kind," according to Rebecca Hagelin, family advocate and author of Home Invasion. Today, MySpace has about 70 million registered users, the majority consisting of Gen Y-ers, those born between 1976 and 2001.

The Beginnings

MySpace was started by entrepreneurs Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, who met while working for an online storage company. The techno-savvy pair created a social networking site that promoted bands and gave consumers a central location to audition and download music.

Visiting the site became a craze and spread by word-of-mouth, thus gaining the attention of the music industry. As of February 2006, more than one million music artists had pages on MySpace, including superstars like U2 and Madonna. But the website quickly evolved into more than a band site.

According to USA Today, MySpace is "a universe of hundreds of thousands of personal Web pages [some of which are laced with profanity, pornography and sexually explicit dialogue] created by its users ... to express their interests and display their personality."

Such interests are expressed through digital photos, music downloads, personality profiles, icons and banners among other features. Users are also able to post comments, send notes in the form of bulletins, instant message each other and display their personal thoughts and opinions in the form of blogs, which are much like online diaries. However, these diaries are not kept under lock and key but can be viewed by the entire world.

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