Age/sex/location

Description

A/S/L is often asked as a question in romantic and sexual contexts online, but it may be used also to just get some defining characteristics of a user. It was an internationally common introduction for virtual conversations in the early 2000s.

A/S/L was commonly used in chat rooms. A 2001 Pew report, "Teenage Life Online", said that teenagers listed A/S/L as the most common question asked of people entering chat rooms. A 2004 study found that "a/s/l" was used in various ways: as a question of everyone in chat rooms, targeted at specific people, or to pair off conversation partners by common identity markers. By 2004, A/S/L was the most common chat technique people used to describe their physicality in dating chat rooms. Among Indonesian students, who mostly chatted over city-specific Indonesian IRC channels in the early 2000s, "a/s/l" in its English-derived acronym was the standard initial greeting between people chatting one-on-one. Afterward, similar follow-up queries would be asked in Indonesian, starting with kul/ker to ask about classes and work.

The English-derived phrase "a/s/l" was also commonly used across different countries and languages as an common greeting. Around the year 2000, Indonesian students, for example, frequently chatted over Indonesian IRC channels focused on certain cities. One-on-one chats would start by asking each other "a/s/l" before asking similar Indonesian abbreviations to narrow down their classes and student status.

When interacting with people in chat rooms on the early internet, people's age, sex, and location were not labeled, and could remain ambiguous and changeable, as with physical characteristics and identity expression. This undercut many traditional expectations for interaction. In-person interaction would usually be between people in the same location, thus making it known, and a 1989 paper found that the main labels people used to categorize each other were sex and age.

Variations

• A/S/L/P or ASLP are short for "Age, Sex, Location, and Picture".
• NASL is short for "Name, Age, Sex, Location".
• ASLNP (or written as "A/S/L/N/P"): "Age/Sex/Location/Name/Picture".
• ASLR is short for "age, sex, location, race".
• ASLRP is short for "age, sex, location, race, picture".
• A/S is short for "Age/Sex".
• A/S/L/M/H is short for "Age, sex, location, music, hobbies".

Criticism

The fact that users often seek A/S/L information in "initial interactions" implies an "emphasis on the physical body online". 52% of the MOO character descriptions referenced age, sex, location, or physical appearance.

Some chatroom participants characterized A/S/L questions as "creepy" or "socially inappropriate".

Legacy

The title of the 2025 novel A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton references the age, sex, and location query of internet chatroom slang, as well as the names of the book's three protagonists. In the book, the characters grew up and met through the early internet. A/S/L addresses the nostalgia surrounding that culture while showing how it can influence and shape the physical world.

References

References

1. "Definition of ASL".
2. Subrahmanyam, Kaveri. (November 2004). "Constructing sexuality and identity in an online teen chat room". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
3. del-Teso-Craviotto, Marisol. (April 16, 2004). "Virtually There: Creating Physicality in Dating Chat Rooms".
4. Slama, Martin. (2010). "The agency of the heart: internet chatting as youth culture in Indonesia". Social Anthropology.
5. "ASL". Computer Hope.
6. Roche, Steve. (2004). "Protect Your Children from Internet and Mobile Phone Dangers: An Easy-to-understand Handbook for Worried Parents". Sparkwave.
7. "NASL".
8. "ASLNP".
9. "A/S".
10. Symens, Becky. "Acronyms Dictionary for Texting Chatting E-mail". Rebecca J Symens.
11. Crystal, David. (10 July 2008). "Txtng: The Gr8 Db8". OUP Oxford.
12. Joinson, Adam. (12 April 2007). "Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology". OUP Oxford.
13. Hartman-Caverly, Sarah. (January 2024). "Privacy Literacy in Academic Libraries". [[Library Journal]].
14. Acevedo, Adriana. (July 12, 2025). "A/S/L Review: Video Game Nostalgia that Hits Different".
15. Vachon, Erin. (May 13, 2025). "“Three Initiates”: On Jeanne Thornton’s A/S/L".