'Teen Safe' app lets parents keep track of their kids texts and posts

NEW YORK -- Among the questions facing parents these days are, How do you cyber-parent?

And how much should you know about who the kids talk to, what they see, or what they look up?

A new app lets parents read texts, even deleted messages, and a lot more. Is it spying? Or taking care of your kid?

"If your intent is to spy then you're spying," said Ameeta Jain, the mom who designed Teen Safe. She calls it loving parenting.

The app can be used with iPhones or Androids, Facebook or Instagram, and the rest of the chat apps, even deleted items.

"We don't throw them in the pool without floaties and a lifeguard, so why would we give them the most important device of our time without some sort of safety precaution in place?" Jain said.

She makes a point: Would you leave the back door of your house open so that strangers could just walk in?

And then there's the bill for the phone: Who pays that?

"You're the parent, so parent, absolutely, just parent your child," said Jain.

That's what one mom thought she was doing until her teenager started acting weird.

Once she secretly used the app to monitor phone use, she found out her teen was using and selling drugs.

"I have to be honest, my husband and I don't love it and it feels a little strange, and we're probably reading some things we shouldn't be reading," she said.

Has it helped? "He's more aware that we're not accepting of it, and I think that if he does do it, from what I can see, I think it's maybe on occasion. It's very hard to control," the mom said.

On the street: "To micro-manage everything in your life is going to be a big problem," one woman said.

"You know if your child is sneaking around doing things or not," a man said.

And that's what neuropsychologist Dr. Cullen Sharma advises: Open the lines early, in case a teen says: "I don't want you take my phone away but I also want to talk with you about something scary that happened," said Dr. Sharma.

And what about telling them you're watching?

"I would absolutely be 100 percent honest," said Jain.

New age, new tools, new rules.