Mom to the rescue.
Jax Anderson and her 12-year-old daughter, Evelyn, have their own private distress signal.
The secret “S-O-S” allows the preteen to quickly and discreetly telegraph the need for parental intervention, in case of uncomfortable or even life-threatening situations — without anybody knowing she’s calling for help.
It’s the “poop” emoji.
“Whenever Evelyn feels anxious in a situation — whether that’s out with friends or at a social family gathering — and she needs to get the heck out of there, she sends the poop emoji,“ Anderson, 48, a psychotherapist from Green Bay, Wisconsin, told The Post. “It tells me that I need to step in and rescue her somehow.”
The Andersons are among a growing number of families who’ve designated a specific icon as a cryptic message to be sent out undetected when necessary.
Substituting emojis for words has become increasingly common since their appearance on Apple devices in 2011.
Gen Zers have created a secret emoji slang to make drug deals, and have assigned new meanings to everyday symbols such as the thumbs-up emoji, said to indicate hostility. And in the year 2023, even senior citizens know what an eggplant emoji in your DMs really means.
But now, parents are using the power of the cutesy mini-cartoons to protect their offspring from harm.
Using the TikTok hashtag #EmojiCode, which has over 2 million views, moms and dads like Anderson are sharing their stories about how their own digital bat signals have sent them running to their child’s aid, with most calling the kid and insisting that they be picked up or return home right away.
And the emoji’s design doesn’t have to depict how the child is feeling in the moment, parents say — it simply needs to signify the need for help.
In viral Reddit post, which amassed over 1 million views after being reposted to X earlier this month, an anonymous parent said they’d saved their son from a disturbing interaction with a friend’s grandfather after the boy texted a “hotdog” emoji in the middle of a planned sleepover.
The parent immediately called the child’s phone, feigned upset over an uncompleted household chore and demanded he return home at once.
“It’s a code for ‘I want to come home, but I want it to be your fault,’” said the Reddit writer.
For Evelyn, Anderson suspects the smiling swirl of excrement will come in handy this fall, when the girl begins junior high school — where the poop can really hit the fan for tweens.
“If she texts me, I have no problem calling her and pretending to be that out of control, strict mom that makes her come home for no reason,” she said, noting that her daughter has used their “9-1-1” code fewer than 10 times since they first established the messaging system at age 4. (That’s when Evelyn started using an iPad to play, learn and send messages with her parents’ permission.)
“I would rather look like the crazy, unreasonable mom who’s losing her s – – t and picking her up from a party or sleepover,” said Anderson, “if gives her the opportunity to leave an uncomfortable situation and still save face in front of her friends.”
Mom and former high school English teacher Katie Peters, 44, from Toledo, Ohio, agrees.
Online, she garnered 5.9 million TikTok views on a post lauding the emoji code as a “lifesaver” that helped son Quinn, now 20, avoid a few sticky messes throughout adolescence.
She told The Post that their secret symbol for help, the “banana” emoji, once cued her to remove the boy from what he believed to be a situation involving drugs.
“I called him and said he needed to come home,” remembered Peters of the phony emergency call she made to Quinn, then a high school freshman, after he texted her the yellow fruit while at a sleepover.
The ninth grader had witnessed his friend’s older brother rolling tobacco cigarettes, but mistook the substance for something less than legal and wanted to flee the scene.
“He pretended to fight me back on the phone, saying, ‘Oh mom, come on. Let me stay,’ but we both knew it was all apart of the plan to get him out of there,” said Peters.
“On the ride home I just kept telling him how proud I was of him for leaving and using the code exactly the way we intended.”
While Manhattan therapist Julie Sahlein told The Post the emoji messaging system can be useful for kids in highly dangerous predicaments, she urges parents to set specific criteria around when and how the code can be used.
“Overuse of the emoji might make it too easy for a teen to be rescued by a parent rather than learn the proper problem-solving skills needed to manage the situation on their own,” Sahlein said.
“If the child is truly feeling unsafe, then it is a great idea to send the emoji. But anything shy of [real trouble], I’d discourage it.”
Anderson, who applauds her daughter for being independent and assertive in social settings, said she’s confident that Evelyn can speak up for herself.
However, the protective parent says their system has served simply to reassure the girl that when the chips are down, mom’s got her back.
“She’s a strong kid,” said Anderson. “So when she does send the poop emoji, I know [the situation] is f – – ing serious.”
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