Should Parents Monitor Their Teens Online?
Written by Mark Lounsbury, Posted on , in Section Teens & Tweens
A question that has increasingly come up for parents in recent years is how involved should I be in monitoring the time my teen spends online? There are many reasons that a parent may wish to monitor their teen's online activity, but it can be difficult to keep track of what they are doing at all times. With this in mind, we suggest the using the following tools to monitor your child's online activity. These should give you a good idea of what your child is up to and indicate when further investigation might be necessary.
Steps Parents Can Take To Monitor Their Children's Online Activity
1 - Install parental control programs - There are a number of different programs that can be installed on computers, tablets, and cellphones that will give extensive information about how they are being used. These can also be valuable as they can be used to block certain features. In addition, these programs can be used for things like tracking your teen's whereabouts. All of these are valuable tools for parents seeking to ensure that they know exactly what their teen is up to at all times.
2 - Get access to their email - If you are able to read their emails, you can track much of their correspondence with friends and teachers. This will give you a good idea of what they are doing much of the time.
3 - Make sure you have their Facebook password - Don't allow your teen to use Facebook without giving you the password. Because this is such a popular website for teens, you will be able to monitor what both your teen is up to and what their friends are doing.
