This is the first in a series of blogs about the benefits of parental monitoring. If you aren't sure that this topic is important, or if you assume that excellent parental supervision is a given, try walking through your local shopping mall during after-school hours and just observe how many unsupervised kids there are.

Parental monitoring is an effective method of preventing your kids from engaging in high risk behaviors. But, this series isn’t just about parents. The relationships and communication of grandparents, aunts, uncles and caring friends with kids can have an extremely positive effect on developing youth.