Staying on Top of Your Mobile Kids' Tech Use: Tips from Mashable

Use your own email account when you start your child on Facebook. Play video games together. Install filters and anti-virus protection on all of your devices. Tell your child that you own the mobile device he or she is using — you paid for it and you'll be in charge of the restrictions.

These are just some of the tips from Monica Vila in the February 8 Mashable article "Keeping One Step Ahead of Kids in a Mobile World." Vila, co-founder of The Online Mom, explains how she used to have her kids' technology usage under control, until everything went mobile.

"For parents, mobile technology has become a losing game of Whac-A-Mole, as we desperately try to keep up with all the various apps and communication platforms that are currently in vogue," Vila writes. So here she offers parents her own best advice for staying on top of kids' "anytime, anywhere" technology use. Her last word to the wise, by the way? "Turn off your smartphone at home as often as possible — be the person you want your child to become."

Check out Vila's site, The Online Mom. It's chock-full of advice, information and encouragement about embracing technology and keeping kids responsible and safe online.