https://www.today.com/parents/teens/lala-bop-meaning-rcna108017 wrote:If you see your teen using the term “lala bop” on social media or in a message, be warned that this online slang isn’t as innocent as it may sound.
Parents are likely unfamiliar with the seemingly innocuous term, leaving many caretakers to ask: What does "lala bop" mean?
"It's used to bully and slut-shame," Titania Jordan, chief parenting officer for Bark Technologies, a company that creates internet safety products, tells TODAY.com. "It's used to 'call out,' whether true or not, 'body count' — meaning how many people somebody has 'hooked up' with or slept with."
Jordan says the term originated from a 2021 song titled "Lala Bop" by rapper Almighty Rexxo, which features explicit, sexual language.
"Lala Bop" has appeared primarily in online posts on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter. It is also being discussed by concerned parents on Facebook and Instagram, some of whom have shared notices from their children's schools warning caregivers that the term is being used to bully students.
Quote:"Slut-shaming (is) a form of bullying that criticizes one’s actual or assumed sexual behavior," Dawn Bounds, a psychiatrist-mental health nurse practitioner and assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, tells TODAY.com.
According to Jordan, social media apps and emojis have made it possible for teens to slut-shame their peers in a variety of ways that may not be obvious to parents.
"Those of us who grew up before smartphones experienced rumors flying around middle school and high school," Jordan says. "It's now compounded, and the negative effects are exponential and forever-lasting."
One 2021 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that slut-shaming is "gender-base violence" used primarily against young girls and women, and can cause psychological and physical health problems.
The same study of over 600 girls between the ages of 10 and 18 found that 14% of participants had experienced sex-shaming at least once.
Jordan says parents may not even be familiar with the slang kids use to slut-shame, "like 'smash' (casual sex) or 'thirsty' (desperate for sexual attention)."
"It's not just words and letters — it's emojis, too," Jordan adds, referring to various food items used to represent sexual acts or body parts.
"The first thing to do is to accept the fact that if you're a parent, you're now old and you're not cool," Jordan says. "You might think you know all the terms, but you don't. Every day there are new things coming up that are not what they sound like. 'Lala Bop' sounds like a cute kid's cartoon."
While "lala bop" was first used to slut-shame others, Jordan says the term has now evolved "beyond sexual encounters, real and perceived" to include "overeating and really any other activity that might embarrass someone."
Jordan says she has seen instances in which "lala bop" was used to shame someone who was diagnosed autistic and someone with what others assume to be an eating disorder.
"It's pretty heartbreaking," Jordan adds.
Bark Technologies, Jordan says, sends alerts to families using their products about online bullying situations, adding that the "lala bop" term escalated quickly once it started appearing online at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023.
"Every day, we're sending between 85 and 100 severe self-harm and suicidal ideation alerts," Jordan says. "Those alerts are taking place for a variety of reasons, whether that's text-based or social media-based or children writing suicide notes in Google Docs.
"Some of those instances were a result of 'lala bop' and ensuing conversations that happened because of that," she adds.