Not only does your child have an incredibly active social life, but now a huge part of their social life happens online, away from the prying eyes of parents.  It's probably unknown to you how many hours your child spends hiding under her covers after the lights are supposed to be out, texting away, or browsing through her friends' status updates.  And now, as if Facebook and Twitter didn't give you enough to worry about, there is Instagram and Snapchat; yet one more reason why social network monitoring needs to be a priority for every parent.

Here is another guest blog post from one of our favorite military mommy bloggers, Samantha, from Hooah and Hiccups as part of our Military Appreciation Month. Throughout the month, look for more guest posts on our blog, our eBook becoming available Dec. 12th and our TroopSwap deal going live in the next couple of days. 

How Skype got me through my husband's deployment

When my husband deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t know how I was going to cope with not seeing him everyday, let alone for weeks and months at a time.

uKnow.com is pleased to announce that December is Military Appreciation Month. Throughout the month of December, we will be featuring military mommy bloggers on our blog site discussing things like helping young children through deployment and moving.  uKnowKids is also releasing a free eBook and SlideShare to the public about essential online tools and digital services that every military family needs.

I myself do not yet have kids, but I am certainly always learning from my parents, younger siblings, friends, coworkers and everyone around me about the difficulties and stresses that can come from it. I'm a person that grew up in the "digital age," and I know that for the younger population, it's just as natural as talking or using a phone. The issue seems to be that when you can talk anywhere at any time to anyone, it becomes almost impossible to keep your thumb on what exactly your kids are talking about.

This article was originally posted on November 23, 2012 by Serena Gordon of HealthDay Reporter

When kids have academic problems, report cards make that clear to parents. And if a kid skins a knee or breaks a bone, parents know what to do.

But detecting that a child is being bullied, and then knowing how to react, may not be so clear-cut.

Kids often are reluctant to tell their parents they're being bullied or cyberbullied, making it difficult to know that they're having trouble with other kids at school or online.

Remember when we wrote about a new trend called swatting a few months back?  Well it hasn't seemed to have slowed down at all.   

If you remember, swatting is where pranksters call police to falsely report that a major crime is underway at some celebrity's home.  Attempted kidnappings and shootings have been some of the most common crimes falsely reported.  This weekend, "X-Factor" judge Simon Cowell was the latest celebrity to fall victim to this form of bullying.  Other swatting victims include actor Ashton Kutcher and singers Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Because these people are well-known celebrities, there is usually a full tactical police response, which takes money and resources away from people who might actually need it.

This original article was posted by Pat Etheridge , Special to CNN.com:

Many teens learn the hard way that once they hit "send," there is no such thing as an "erase" button. 

Editor's note: Former CNN correspondent Pat Etheridge is a journalist specializing in children's health and family issues. She previously hosted CNN's "Parenting Today." 

(CNN) -- They're called "Generation M2": highly tech-savvy children ages 8 to 18, whose lives are immersed in electronic media.

Now, the nation's top pediatric organization is mobilizing efforts around their well-being.

Parents looking to protect their kids online know that there are no easy solutions. uKnowKids has worked closely with parents, educators and professionals to design a product that can be a helpful tool for parents as they put together their larger strategy for keeping kids safe. One of the most valuable parts of any stategy on how to keep kids safe with social media has to include that age-old tool of parents everywhere: The conversation.

So how do you bring up conversations about your child's online life?

1. Treat social networks as a natural part of your child's life. For today's generation of kids, there is little difference between online and offline. Relationships with friends and classmates flow seamlessly between chats in the lunchroom and chats online. So while you think you're discussing facebook safety for teens, your child will think you're just discussing life

As parents, we all want to think the best of our children. However, sometimes they don’t live up to our expectations. Even a child with the best of intentions can find themselves involved in the darker side of social networking. The good news is that parents can take some simple and free steps to begin effective parental monitoring.

Talk about your expectations

Kids can’t follow a rule if it doesn’t exist. Clear expectations must be set or your child is likely to make mistakes. The resource link on the uKnowKids homepage has free safety tips and an Internet & Mobile Safety Pledge for Kids. 

Good news uKnowKids fans! We have partnered with SocialToaster to create an Ambassador program for people like you who really love our company, mission, and educational content!

SocialToaster is an online sharing tool that will give fans like you super powers -- the ability to share the content that you already love and earn rewards for doing so! The more content you share and the more traffic you generate on your social networks, the more points you will gain.  And as an added fun factor, you are competing against other uKnowKids lovers. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone!

Doesn't it seem that new smartphones appear all the time? If the media isn't touting the latest and greatest new phone, your teenager certainly is! While teenagers around the country started to drool over the new features, parents face the same dilemma they have faced since the origianal smart hones started appearing on kids' birthday and holiday gift lists. How do I keep my child safe?

Our son, Bud, loved cyberschool. During his sophomore and junior years his grades got better, his attitude improved, he started hanging out with friends again. Towards the end of his junior year, Bud decided he wanted to go back to public school for his senior year. We were all very excited about his progress. Some of Bud's friends from junior high had taken a wrong turn in high school and started taking methamphetamines. Bud had no use for that and stopped hanging out with them, although they all parted on good terms.

The problem was that G, the younger brother of one of these boys, had looked up to Bud as a protector and was very resentful when Bud stopped hanging out with G's brother and friends. G is a troubled child -

If your child has a Facebook account, you've got to understand the privacy settings and parental helps Facebook already has in place. Knowing Facebook safety features means that you can teach your kids to manage their private information and stay safe online. Here are 9 things you need to know about Facebook for kids. 

uKnowKids is extremely pleased to announce the release of our first ever eBook entitled “10 Essential Things Parents Need to Know About Cyberbullying.”  We were inspired to write and produce this eBook because October is National Bullying Awareness Month, and it is our mission to educate parents about the often overlooked topic of cyberbullying.   

Your goal is to have regular conversations with your child about what's going on in his or her social networking universe, but if you're constantly interrupting with “Wait, what's a timeline?” or “You can video chat in Facebook?” you will quickly alienate your teen. If you want to be serious about parental monitoring, you have to know the channels your child is using.

Knowing the basic Facebook terminology, the world's most popular social network, helps you understand what social networking means to your child and facilitates an ongoing conversation about Internet safety. 

There are lots of ways to bully someone online, but social networks are the most effective and most devastating way to go about it. And Facebook, the most popular social network of all, is a prime favorite for cyberbullies. Does your child know what to do if bullied on Facebook?

93% of teens who have witnessed cruel behavior online say that most of the harassment took place on Facebook. If your tween or teen has a Facebook account, they should know these 4 things to do if they become a victim of Facebook bullying. 

43% of kids say they've been bullied online and kids say that 93% of the cruel behavior they see online is on Facebook. Your child's first line of defense should be unfriending bullies or blocking them – but which is most appropriate, and what's the difference between the two? 

uKnowKids was on The Ricki Lake Show today, and it was truly an amazing day.  Hundreds of thousands of parents learned about uKnowKids today, and that is the very good news!

Airing Thursday October 4th, Tim Woda, our in-house Internet and Mobile Safety expert will be guest starring on The Ricki Lake Show. Covering two segments of the hour long show Tim details the harrowing story that led to the creation of uKnow.com and uKnowKids. If you would like to join us for our viewing party we will be hosting a Google+ Hangout with Tim and our Team. Join in on Thursday at 11:00 AM EST!

Thursday Show Preview:

"How much is too much when it comes to sharing on Social Media?