New smartphone app: Spying or good parenting?

If your child is constantly on his or her smartphone, there is a new application at your disposal that will allow you to track everything they are doing on the device.

The app is called TeenSafe, a web-based service that allows parents access to all incoming, outgoing and deleted text messages, web browsing history, contacts, call logs, location and Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Kik activity.

"Statistics show that children do not tell you everything that's happening and with cyber-bullying and sexting being so prevalent in their lives, I just wanted a safety precaution mechanism in place," said Ameeta Jain, co-founder TeenSafe, who also is the mother of a teenaged daughter. "I have a 'trust but verify' approach with my daughter, so she knows I'm monitoring her.  It's not that I go in there every day, but I just want to make sure that if there is any inappropriate information that's coming at her, I know about it so I can start that conversation."

Jain does not see the app as an invasion of privacy.

"If you go into this thinking that you're spying, then that is your intent and you are spying. This was created with love and the intention that I have is to look at it with having love, thoughtfulness and respect for my child and that is the way I use TeenSafe," she said. "This just gives us the opportunity to be in the know so that we can intervene when something drastic is happening."

There are more than 40 million children with smartphone and social media access and of those, 10 million have been cyber-bullied, according to Jain. She added that 62 percent have witnessed it and 90 percent will never tell.

"From the moment our children were little, we had baby monitors, bike helmets and floaties in the pool, but we don't have any safety precautions for the most important device of our time," she said. "We want them to technologically savvy, but with that technology, they have the world at their fingertips. As parents, it's our responsibility to protect them and make sure that we can have conversations about anything that is coming at them."

The app costs $14.95 per month and there is a seven-day free trial. For more information, visit www.teensafe.com.