What can we do about sexting? Will monitoring help? A common question parents have – and an ongoing debate within the comments section on many of my articles – is whether or not to monitor their kids’ internet and phone activity.

It is common these days for each member of the family to use more than one Internet-connected device. In fact you might call it the new normal. In addition to home computers, you’ve got smartphones, tablets, iPods, gaming devices and smart TV’s. How many screens are in your home? I just counted 15 here – 2 TV’s, 1 computer, 2 laptops, 1 Kindle fire, 2 iPads, 1 iPad mini, 3 smartphones, and 3 (old and rarely used) iPods. Each of these connects to the Internet. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could monitor, filter and control usage on any of these devices without having to install something on each device?

Guess what, it is possible!

Here is a round-up of parental control tools that cover every device in your home.

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I received an e-mail recently asking “When I comment on someone else’s post, how can I keep that activity from showing up on my profile for all my friends to see?” This is an excellent question and something to keep in mind when commenting.   Your comments and likes on Facebook are shared with different audiences depending on the privacy setting of the original post.  Since you can’t control the privacy setting of original post, think before you like or comment!

Now that I’ve been using iOS family sharing features for a while, I’m finding it isn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be. I wrote earlier this year about the “Pros and Cons” of iOS Family Sharing. This post builds upon that one, but focuses on one feature in particular that I’ve found useful: location sharing. With location sharing, you can check in on the location of family members, without the need for an additional app on your device or theirs.

Kids are using computers and tablets at younger ages – 38% of kids under the age of 2 have used a mobile device! And it’s common to stumble upon objectionable content when you are not looking for it, even for older kids, teens and adults. So what’s a family to do? One of the most important tools in a digital parent’s toolkit is internet filtering or monitoring software. There are many to choose from, and recently I tested Covenant Eyes. Covenant Eyes is a screen accountability and monitoring service dedicated to helping to combat porn addiction.

A relative of mine asked me, What can I do if I don’t want to see someone’s updates on Facebook, but I’d rather not unfriend or block them? Here’s how to make it seem like you have unfriended a person. First, you will prevent their updates from showing up on your news feed (the page you see when you first log into Facebook). Then, you can prevent them from seeing your updates.

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