Algospeak Glossary: 25 Codes Every UK Parent Must Know
When I was a kid back in the distant past, if you wanted to say something without the grown-ups understanding, you invented a code. A word you’d swap for another, a look across the classroom, a note folded into a shape only your mates knew how to open. Every generation does this. What’s changed is the reason.
Today’s kids are not coding language to keep secrets from parents. They’re coding it to survive an algorithm. This is called algospeak, and if you’re a UK parent scrolling past your child’s shoulder wondering why “unalive” and “seggs” and a corn emoji keep showing up in their world, this glossary is for you.
What Algospeak Actually Is
Algospeak is a blend of “algorithm” and “speak.”1 Platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube use automated systems to scan posts, captions and even audio for words linked to violence, drugs, sexual content or self-harm. Flagged content can be hidden, demonetised or removed. So users, particularly teenagers who live and breathe these platforms, started swapping risky words for near-misses the algorithm doesn’t catch. The term itself only started spreading in 2021 and went properly mainstream after a 2022 Washington Post piece by Taylor Lorenz.
I’ve spent a long time looking at exactly this kind of thing, language people use when they don’t want to be understood by the systems watching them. The instinct to code language when you feel surveilled isn’t new. What’s new is the scale, and the fact that it’s thirteen-year-olds doing it, not just criminals.
Here’s the bit that matters for you as a parent, algospeak isn’t always harmless. Some of it is kids being creative and a bit daft. Some of it is a teenager trying to talk about something serious, like self-harm or sexual assault, in the only language that won’t get their post deleted. Knowing the difference starts with knowing the words.
Self-Harm and Suicide Algospeak
This is the category I want you to read most carefully.
Unalive / unalived — to kill, die, or die by suicide. Started as a way to discuss suicide without triggering filters and has since spread into everyday teen speech, even in essays about Shakespeare.
Sewer slide / kermit sewer slide - suicide, said phonetically to dodge word-matching filters.
Barcode - self-harm scars, referencing the way parallel cuts can resemble a barcode. Often paired with a barcode emoji.
Mascara - code for describing sexual assault. This went public in 2023 when actress Julia Fox left an innocuous-sounding comment under a “mascara” post, not realising what it meant, and had to publicly apologise once she understood.2
Camping - meaning shifts by community. In some spaces, it refers to self-harm, in others to abortion. Context always decides.
Sexual Content Algospeak
Seggs / seggsy - sex
Corn / 🌽 - porn, from porn to corn to the corn emoji
⬛🟧 (black and orange squares) - also porn, referencing the colours of a well-known porn site’s logo
Le dollar bean / le$bean - lesbian, which mutated further after voice-to-text captions mispronounced it
Accountant - a sex worker
Nip nops - nipples
Grape / 🍇 - rape
Cracked / “getting cracked” - having sex, one of the newer 2026 additions to teen slang3
Drug and Alcohol Algospeak
Gardening - smoking cannabis
Penjamin (Franklin) - a joint or blunt
Lettuce - a vague catch-all for drugs
Beveragino - alcohol
Identity, Hate and LGBTQ+ Algospeak
Cornucopia - homophobia
Leg booty - the LGBTQ+ community
Yt - white or Caucasian people
G@y / rainbow emoji with a limp wrist gesture - gay, used both by LGBTQ+ creators discussing their own lives and, less kindly, by others mocking them. Tone and context decide which.
Mental Health and Neurodivergence Algospeak
Depressi0n - depression, a simple number-for-letter swap
Tism - autism spectrum conditions, frequently weaponised as an insult rather than used descriptively
Political and Protest Algospeak
Panini / panoramic - the pandemic, a hangover term from COVID-era moderation
Cute winter boots - tutorials on protest safety, largely used around recent US immigration enforcement protests
Music festival - a code phrase used to discuss protests without tripping moderation filters4
Why Context Matters More Than the Word
If there’s one thing eight years in digital forensics taught me, it’s this, never chase the word, chase the pattern. A single odd term from your child is very likely nothing. Kids borrow language from their friendship groups the way they always have, and most of it is just noise. But a cluster of these terms, especially the self-harm and sexual assault ones, showing up alongside a change in mood, sleep, or how much your child wants to be around you, is worth a quiet conversation. Not a phone search or an interrogation, a conversation.
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What UK Law Says About This Now
This isn’t just a language curiosity anymore. In December 2025, the UK government created two new priority offences under the Online Safety Act: encouraging or assisting serious self-harm and cyberflashing5. Both were previously non-priority offences, meaning platforms now have a stronger legal duty to detect and act on this kind of content, not just the plainly worded version of it, but the algospeak version too.
Ofcom’s own research, published in May 2026, found that 73% of 11-to 17-year-olds in the UK encountered harmful content online in a single four-week period, with 53% of secondary-school-aged children finding it specifically on TikTok.6 Algospeak is one of the reasons that content keeps slipping past moderation systems that are still, largely, looking for the plain-English version of the words, just another reason you can’t put all of your faith into technical controls.
How to Talk to Your Child About Algospeak
Ask, don’t accuse. “I saw this word online. What does it mean?” opens a door. “Why are you saying this?” closes one.
Treat it as a vocabulary lesson, not a crime scene. Most algospeak is genuinely just slang.
If you spot the self-harm or sexual assault terms specifically, follow up gently and directly. “I noticed you used the word ‘unalive ’. How are you actually doing?”
Don’t punish disclosure. If a child uses algospeak to tell you something hard and gets a telling-off for their language instead of support, they won’t tell you again.
If you’re worried about what you’ve found, Childline is there for your child too, not just for crises.
You don’t need to memorise this list. You need your child to know that whatever word they use to say it, you’re someone they can say it to.
If your child, or a child you know, needs to talk to someone, Childline is free, confidential, and available around the clock on 0800 1111.
As always, thank you for your support. Please share this across your social media, and if you do have any comments, questions, or concerns, then feel free to reach out to me via the Social page, as I am always happy to spend some time helping to protect children online.
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If you or a child you know needs support:
Childline: 0800 1111 | childline.org.uk
Available 24/7, 365 days a year. Free, confidential, and here for every child.
Merriam-Webster, “Algospeak,” slang dictionary entry, 2026.
Wikipedia, “Algospeak,” citing the 2023 Julia Fox TikTok incident.
SheKnows, “Ultimate 2026 Guide to Teen & Tween Slang,” May 2026.
Wikipedia, “Algospeak,” citing Axios, “’Music Festival’: The Internet’s Protest Code Word,” 2025.
Ofcom, Statement: Protecting People from Illegal Harms Online, update 24 March 2026, referencing the December 2025 priority offence changes.
Ofcom, Children’s Online Experiences Report / Project Mercury findings, published 21 May 2026.