Parental Viewing of Electronic Devices

Melanie,
How old are your kids? From your profile, it looks like O. is 6 (?). I assume these are older kids you're asking about?

Ok--so you're asking about teenagers. Sometimes it's not just as simple as "laying down the law" as suggested. PERIOD! LOL

There are software programs for blocking of questionable content...Besecure.com, etc.

You can always check your computer's history.
You can have the kids leave the ipods, phones, etc in a common living area when they go to bed at night.
You can also have them change their FB accounts to a new (mom controlled) password so the only option they have is to use FB in public home areas.

You can talk to your cell providers about restricting texts, phone numbers, etc--I have a coworker that did this recently.

It's crazy out-of-hand, the teens and 20 somethings GLUED to their devices, phones, etc....BUT technology IS NOW and these kids need to "be up" on it and embrace technology to the fullest. It is a HUGE part of the work world, so in a way, it's a good thing for them to be "knee deep" it just has to be monitored and safe, as you said.

ETA: Here's a previous thread that you might find useful:
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/12793391768569708545
Apparently--there's an app for that! LOL

For one, I would go with non-web enabled or wifi enabled devices as much as possible.

However, I do hear you. My SD's ipod touch has wifi, and her phone can reach the internet.

Things you can consider doing are 1) have all electronics of that type charge in your care overnight so that the kids aren't on all night online. 2) teach the kids net safety. For example, we have a rule that they can't post that they go to x school or are in x grade. They can't give out their home address or phone number. Now, I'm not so nieve as to think they always follow that (and anyone with 2 braincells can figure out that a teenager with a slew of friends from the same HS is likely a student there), 3) be involved. Know who their friends are. See thier accounts. Be FB friends with them. Know their passwords. Keep computers in main areas of the house. My SS only has a an internet drop in his room because he's in college. His sister still uses the desktop in the rec room that faces the rest of the house.

We walk the line between privacy and not. We are in their online business as much as we are their regular business.

Since it is an Apple product, I would take all of the devices to the Apple store and have them show you 1) what's on it 2) how to block certain programs and 3) how to delete! I would **HOPE** that the store would do this free of charge since this is a protective measure to help your kids.
You need their passwords for FB or block it from their devices altogether.

This is difficult. We monitered our teens computer time while in high school, but there were sooooo many other ways for them to go online now. I blocked the internet use from all cell phones, so that 1, I didn't get crazy charges for the time used, and 2, they didn't have access that I had to feel the need to "check up on" Unfortunatly, there are still many other ways to go online now. We found out that several playstations have internet access, and as you stated, so do the ipods. We did buy nintendo Ds for our younger 2 last Christmas, and bought the "older" versions not the dsi ones, strictly so they could not go on the internet with them. UGH! Our older girls have ipods, but only one has the ipod touch, which allows access to the internet. (she bought it herself at age 19) By that age we have to assume that she is smart and careful enough to know what to post online and not post. The younger of the 2 had a regular ipod, which to my knowledge, lol, cannot go online. (notice the lol because I am still not 100% sure of this) Luckily we have a pretty open relationship with all of our kids so far, and they tell us everything. (more than we want to know sometimes I admit) All I can do is pray that they are safe online, keep educating them, and one last bit of advice is we have a large group of friends and close family who they are also "friends" with on most of their social networks, so if we should miss something, one of their cousins or my friend's kids would see it and mention it to my friend or sister in law, who in turn would mention it to me. This has happened a couple times, and what they saw was just a silly post of a place they were going next week, plans that were made. I went nuts though because that's the type of info that can be scary to let out. Even if all of your settings are on private on the social networks. I looked at it as a learning experience for us all, and was happy to see that I would be told about things if I missed them myself. Good luck, it's a tough world these days!