Recently I answered this question at education.com.  Since it’s something all parents with kids today struggle with, I thought I’d share it here too.

Question:  Can you really keep up with your child’s technology use? With all the modes of technology, can you really be on top of what your child is doing at any given time? Students text and check Facebook from school. What can you do to truly monitor their usage?

Answer:  Absolutely!  As parents we need to be very aware of what our children are doing on their computers, cell phones, and ipods.  This type of technology is here to stay, so as parents we need to learn all we can about them to protect the safety of our children.  Two of the best things you can do are:

1.  Have open and honest discussions with your kids about internet safety, and your expectations for how they should behave online.

2.  Install internet protection software on all of their computers and mobile devices!  Then you can monitor their usage to make sure they are staying safe online.  Any computers that they use at school will already have this protection installed, but you need to make sure they are equally safe on their home computer, cell phone, and ipod!

For more tips, check out my Top Ten Ways To Keep Your Kids Safe Online.  Hope it helps you to get started with this all important task.

Best of luck!