Parents hear a lot of conflicting things about Facebook these days.  First of all, it looks like children have stopped communicating in person and started communicating more over the internet.  There is a certain safety in this kind of communication.  If you say something the other person doesn’t like, at least you don’t have to deal with the consequences right away.  It gives you more courage to express what you feel.  However, people do say hurtful things over the internet as well, and cyberbullying is as real a problem as in-person bullying.  If you're wondering, "Is my child ready for Facebook?" then keep the following factors in mind:

1. Age: Is your child over the age of 13?  If not, you will be in direct violation of Facebook’s policy.  You’ll be lying about your child’s age and setting a bad example for him/her.  So take your time and wait until your child is the official age.  You’ll have less to worry about, and s/he will also be more mature by the time s/he starts social networking.

uKnowKids was featured in Mashable in the article "Keep it Clean: 8 Tools to Block Porn and Sexting." uKnowKids can help parents prevent their children from sexting and the dangerous pitfalls that can come with it! Here is it, by Taylor Casti.

If Anthony Weiner has taught us anything, it's that sometimes naughty pics just aren't worth it.

Sexting and pornography can be a problem for parents with teens. For teenagers and preteens, sexting can have major consequences, the least of which being a bad reputation. Nude selfies are still considered child pornography and are against the law. Even if the photo never makes it into the wrong hands, one study shows that teens who engage in sexting are more likely to take bigger sexual risks (such as having sex) that could lead to sexually transmitted diseases or teen pregnancy.

When used in a responsible and safe manner, the Internet can be one of the most powerful research and educational tools at a child's disposal. It can expose him to a wealth of knowledge that would otherwise be difficult to obtain, help him experience other cultures and ways of life and encourage him to learn about the world around him. When used irresponsibly by children that have not been adequately taught about the potential dangers, however, the Internet can also be one of the most powerful tools at a predator's disposal. These ten tips can help you keep your kids safe without depriving them of the vaulable knowledga available.

The month of July brings you another eBook, and this one is for any parent whose child has asked to start their own, or any parent who wants to understand the basics and not-so-basics of blogging!

While there is undoubtedly a lot of potential for finding knowledge and quickly assembling research via the Internet, kids that use search engines and social networks for school and pleasure can end up facing significant dangers. 

We are extremely excited to announce our first annual Parenting Blog of the Year winners. We listened to our readers recommendations and scoured the web for the 25 best mommy/daddy bloggers and then we left it up to you to vote and decide who wins from there! Readers voted like crazy from mid-June to the first week of July, and the top 5 winners went home with some great prizes including gift cards, free uKnowKids accounts, press opportunities, and more!

In the current digital age, many families have tween and teenage children who spend significant periods of time on social media websites and mobile devices. While these outlets can be asset to children's social lives, they can also do more harm than good. Many parents are weary of enforcing heavy social media and cell phone monitoring because of the endless arguments that will result. However, doing nothing and letting tweens and teens have complete freedom is not the answer either. How do you find a balance? Consider creating an open environment for communication and compromise in which you and your children can discuss healthy limits and rules. The following tips will help you with this process.

• When can a child join Facebook? The minimum age for creating a Facebook account is 13. However, there is no way for Facebook to enforce this policy as people can lie about their birthdays when they create accounts. As a parent, it can be tough to stand up against the growing pressure that "everyone" at school has a Facebook account, even in 4th or 5th grade. If your child is adamant about joining Facebook before age 13, have a discussion with him or her about why Facebook creates this minimum age and why you believe that it is important. Your child may still be upset about not getting an account, but in time he or she will appreciate your honesty.

The internet is a truly wonderful thing. Never in history has so much information been so readily available. All it takes is a query and a few pecks on a keyboard for a person to immerse themselves in books, videos, periodicals, tutorials and countless other forms of media. However, as information amasses in databases all across the web, so does material that is unsuitable for younger audiences.

Parental monitoring tools enabling parents to see what kids are doing online are going to be needed more than ever. An extensive study is out that says children look up things they shouldn't when the parents aren't around. This study through McAfee is a real eye-opener and goes into the deep layers of what makes parental control so difficult: Lack of time and knowledge.

Parents Not Keeping Up with What Kids Know

In the above study, it's found that many teens take advantage of parents not knowing how easy it is to guess passwords those parents set for parental controls. As well, the general lack of tech savvy by busy parents means kids are taking advantage of the situation. The most concerning is that the parents in the study thought it was impossible for their kids to learn the parental control passwords.

With summer vacation just around the corner, kids have much more free time on their hands for social networking than they did during the school year. With that absence of face-to-face contact and communication that kids are normally exposed to during school hours, cyberbullies are provided a “protective shield” from real-life consequences. Hiding behind the safety of a keyboard, bullies feel invulnerable to any possible negative repercussions of their behavior, making them far more vicious in their attacks. Consider the following few tips on keeping your kids safe from cyberbullying this summer vacation, when decidedly taking preventative measures, or if your child falls prey to one's attacks. Be sure to instruct your children on the proper procedures to execute if they encounter online harassment.

Don't Fight Fire With Fire

You know kids.  They live, breathe, eat, sleep and play in a digital world. There's no denying this fact and there's no going back.

You may long for a time when families sat around the dinner table and talked to each other.  You may wish for more face time, actual conversations, even if it is with a telephone.  However, our plug-and-play digital society is entrenched and intrusive. This is where Digital Parenting comes in.

So, how does Digital Parenting work?  First, establishing boundaries is key.  Your kids, and most likely you, are attached to your cell phone and mobile communications device.  It is the way of today's world. You can practice examples that will help make you an accomplished Digital Parenting professional.

First example: Kids mimic what their parents do and say.  If you are on the cell phone while driving with your child, they determine this to be normal behavior.  If you are texting with a friend, co-worker or family member during a conversation, they also see this as acceptable.

Whether we like it or not, we all know that tweeners are more active on social media now than ever.

Take a look down any hallway in a middle-school, and you will see kids everywhere hiding their smart phones in their lockers and bags to make a quick text or social media update.

We don't need to review the consequences and dangers of children being online unattended.  We see stories about it each night on prime time TV. Horrific stories of children being abducted and held in the custody of demented strangers. 

Did you know Congress has declared June as National Internet safety month? While we believe every month should be Internet safety month, we are excited about the awareness that this will hopefully cause! Because of this, we are running a contest throught the month of June where you can enter to win a year-long free Premier uKnowKids account featuring enhanced social, mobile and location monitoring valued at $120. All you have to do is enter and you will have a chance to win one of 10 prizes! No purchase necessary! 

Social networking sites are a popular way for children and teenagers to keep in touch with each other and stay updated with what is going on in their lives. Facebook is currently the most popular site by far, and the process of updating your own status, and looking at other users' information, can take up quite a bit of a child's time. Unfortunately, some kids are on the site far too often and for long durations of time, leading to what can be called "Facebook addiction". This can lead to slipping grades, disciplinary problems, and social anxiety.

Stepping in before Facebook addiction becomes a real problem can be done with sensible digital parenting and Parental Intelligence solutions, but it always helps to know what to look for in order to tell if your child is addicted to Facebook. These 5 signs should be taken very seriously and if they are present, you should be prepared to set rules and limits on Facebook usage.

1. Is your child constantly on Facebook?

A child being constantly on Facebook is a sure sign of Facebook addiction. If their time on the site can be summarized as "multiple hours a day", you should have a talk with your child and let them know that it can be potentially unhealthy to be on Facebook for so long every day. Facebook monitoring programs can help you determine how long they are on and what exactly they are doing on the site.

Parents and teachers are forced to long for those days when bullying mostly ended up with school authorities suspending the bully and calling in parents of both parties. Schools do boast of counseling sessions and preventive measures to stop bullying but the offense has taken a new form which is making it more and more difficult for both educators and parents to control. As the only exercise for more and more teens is flexing their fingers on the keyboard of their computer or phone, their cyberbullying, at some point or the other, does step into their virtual lives. The main problem is that traditional bullying was more visible than cyberbullying. It happened mostly on school premises and even if it didn’t, there was always some proof of harassment or some kind of supervision that could put a stop to the act. In its most dangerous form known as cyberbullying, the mere detection of the problem is very difficult. Prevention and long-term effects are even more unmanageable.   

Justin Patchin, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Co-Director of Cyberbullying Research Center, spoke in an interview about how cyberbullying has teachers baffled as to what role they can play in stopping it. It has managed to give teachers more to worry about than just the falling grades of their students. Recognizing it as more or less new phenomena, Patchin encourages school authorities to avoid keeping cyberbullying at the end of their priority list.

This guest post comes to us from Pierce Higgins, founder of AfterMath, a website that enables a child to earn his time online by answering educational challenges. 

It a great privilege to be asked to write a guest blog for uKnowKids.com, one of the world’s leading companies in the “Parental Intelligence” space. uKnowKids has a range of category-winning products for parents that cover areas such as social monitoring, mobile monitoring and location monitoring.

Today’s parents have become disconnected from the digital lives of their children and have become increasingly incapable of dealing with cyberbullying, sexting issues ,mortifying video clips on YouTube amongst many.

Cell phones are becoming more ubiquitous with teens and tweens texting their friends every chance they can get. While this isn’t generally an issue, and can even provide smiles and a fun way to communicate with peers, there is a concern with a type of texting called sexting.

Sexting is the sharing of nude or near nude pictures by cell phone texts. Sexting is different from sending suggestive text messages, which although also a subject of concern, is not the same as sending an actual photo of one’s self in the nude with possibly a suggestive text message accompanying it.

So how can you protect your child from, and teach your child about, the implications and consequences of sexting?