In a new survey, AT&T asked parents about their use of parental controls for cyber technologies.

Eighty-four percent of the respondents said that having parental controls and safety tools is either extremely or very important for keeping children safe when they use communications and entertainment technologies. However, nearly one-third (31 percent) of surveyed adults do not know how to use the tools that are available to help keep children safe when it comes to the threats they may encounter.

AT&T recommends parents learn about tools for monitoring children's activities and conduct an assessment of how often they surf the Web and chat with friends via instant messenger services and e-mail.

Ask your children questions, like: How many kids do they know who have MySpace pages? How appealing do they find online gaming? What would they like to be doing online if they could?

• Find out what parental controls are available and if there is a cost. For more tips from AT&T, see www.att.com/smartlimits.

If you're lost on some of the acronyms your child might be using in chats, e-mails, text messages or phone calls, type them into Teen Chat Decoder to have them instantly deciphered: www.teenchatdecoder.com. And for detailed explanations of different technologies and more tips on monitoring your kids' communications, check out the FBI's A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety: www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm.

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