Well, you;re cutting corners by using the private messaging feature as an instant messenger. It is essentially fulfilling the same purpose, and to try and draw the dinstinction between the two would just be annoying nitpicking. Point being, you're still disobeying your parents. The obvious solution is to just get an instant messenger like AIM or MSN and just don't tell your parents. The issue of parents being overprotective is a whole other matter (one I'd like to get into but won't).