For many of us, emojis are something we see or use every day. Quite often they're a fun or light-hearted way of communicating with people - but in the criminal world, their connotations can much more sinister.
Police have issued a warning over the hidden meanings of emojis being used by children and young people. They say that in some cases drug dealers are even using them to lure kids into buying or selling drugs.
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The guide from Surrey cops explains how children could be using symbols such as the peach, fish, eggplant and leaf emojis to disguise text conversations about drugs and sex from their parents.
The campaign calls for parents to be 'emoji aware', and suggests that criminals are using the same text-speak to get young people to buy drugs from them or lure them into becoming 'runners' and sell drugs for them. The force has stressed that the use of emojis by children alone may not indicate that they are involved in drugs and that parents should look for other contributing factors like, change in mood, performance at school and the child becoming increasingly secretive.
How many of these emoji meanings do you recognise?
They have also advised parents not to snoop on their children's phones as trust between the parent and child is vital and they say they have released the guidance in case parents happen to come across them.
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Hyder said: “We really want parents and guardians to feel confident to have a conversation with their children about this, if and when they need to. We have shared a lot of information around emojis over the past couple of weeks, both on social media and with our local partners to help raise awareness and start the discussion around this.
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“Our focus on this doesn’t stop with the end of this initial campaign. We will be continuing to work with local partners to extend the conversation around emojis. We’re also aware that emojis and their alternative meanings are something that will constantly change, and so our work and research into this will continue.”
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