What is ASL?

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What is ASL?
ASL is another internet lingo or acronym that stands for “Age, Sex, and Location”. Typically used in chatrooms and on mobile phones through SMS or short messaging service. When somebody types “ASL” or “A/S/L” on a particular chatroom, it simply means that that person is asking the other about his/her age, sex, and location.

When somebody joins or enters a chat service for example, he/she usually is asked about his/her age, sex, and location at the start of the chat or conversation. This serves like baseline information for other people to let them know at least a little something about you. Of course, it doesn’t always follow that one person will tell the truth and will give details to strangers. But nevertheless, once the basics of ASL is out there, then the chat will become now more conversational, rather than formal.

ASL is used by many mostly for practical reasons. Like when somebody joins a chat room to have conversations with people having similar interests, he/she may opt to chat with people his/her age. For those who want to have boyfriends or girlfriends for example, of course they would have to prefer chatting with people of the opposite sex. And for those who want to meet up at some point in time, it is important for them to be in a similar location with the person in the other end of the chat network. So basically, ASL gives people a choice to continue with the conversation or not. Other people wouldn’t want to waste their time and effort chatting with somebody that they do not like or have nothing in common to talk about with.

But since many chat rooms do not include web camera services to “see” the other person on the other end of the service, the use of ASL has its disadvantages also. Other than the usual dishonesty from chat members, some criminals like rapists and paedophiles scroll over chat rooms and pose themselves as a friend for all. These people may use ASL to spy on people or to track the location of their would-be victims.

So, everyone must take caution in giving exact details to strangers on internet chatrooms. Children must especially be warned about the possible dangers of giving out somewhat “normal” and “harmless” details such as ASL.

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