ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Are you keeping track of what your kids are doing on their phones? That’s a question the Albuquerque Police Department wants to help parents answer.

“We were all teenagers, right? We’ve done dumb things but how do we make sure those dumb things aren’t with a gun, driving drunk in a car, taking drugs that you can overdose on. How do we limit those extreme dangers?” said Commander Kyle Hartsock, with APD.

Starting this week, APD is hosting a panel for parents to educate them on what social media has to offer.

“Social media is an ever-evolving world where, there are just new apps all the time, new emojis, new sayings. And I think a lot of the parents, rightfully so, feel intimidated, are left behind but we think it’s important to understand the conversations that their kids are having and how to talk to their kids about these apps and conversations,” Hartsock said.

Hartsock said they want to show teens you care about they way they communicate. They want to make parents aware of how they communicate.

“If they’re sharing things that are inappropriate, even though we know they can filter out their parents, but if they’re sharing things that are inappropriate, your parent might see it,” Hartsock said.

Police will also bring up recent cases. For instance, he 14-year-old shot and killed during an attempted robbery about a month ago. Hartsock said the eight teens involved were communicating through social media.

APD will alert parents about Telegram.

“That app right now, if you’re a teenager, has almost no purpose but to do nefarious things. There are other mediums that are more widely adopted than Telegram right now but Telegram is where the elicit gun market, and now drug market, is right now somewhat moving to as we’ve seen other social media companies start to clamp down on that behavior,” Hartsock said.

If you want to join the social media panel, it’ll be Wednesday on Zoom from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.