With more children and teens having access to cell phones and tablets, police are urging parents to monitor their activity and be aware of what they’re doing online.

“Parents, community leaders, teachers need to be involved,” said Richard Evanchec, a special agent with the FBI Pittsburgh office. “They need to be aware of what their children are doing online. When they’re picking up a cell phone, we shouldn’t assume that they’re doing something admirable. Children are vulnerable. They don’t yet know what right and wrong is, and we need to help them.”

Evanchec shared that message on Wednesday during a news conference in Whitehall Borough, where a teenage girl had been lured from her home over the weekend. Police said a 27-year-old man started communication with the teen on an app called Discord just days before she went missing.

Consider parental spyware, expert says

Cyber experts said parents must know what their kids are doing on their devices.

“If you’re going to hand your child a device, realize that there’s a time commitment for you as well,” said Dr. Elise Silva, the director of policy research at Pitt Cyber.

Experts at Pitt Cyber said parents need to explain the risks of being online, be vigilant and monitor their kids’ activity and consider parental spyware.

“As soon as your child has access to any digital technology, it’s talking about the responsibility of being a digital citizen,” Silva said. “What is a digital footprint? How long is this information going to be online? But also, who else goes online? Not everybody online is who they say they are.”

Set screen times and parental controls 

Silva said parents should consider setting screen time limits and filtering adult content.

“You can turn on things like parental controls,” Silva said. “Screen time limits for different apps or for an entire device. You can also, app by app, go through and look at the different types of parental controls that are there. I suggest doing it on both a device level and an app level. So the apps that your children are accessing, make sure that you’re going into parental controls, privacy settings and seeing what you do and don’t have control over. Safe Search is a really important thing for parents to know about. You can do that on a device level and also a browser level. So make sure you’re looking at Chrome, make sure you’re looking at Safari and turning on safe search to make sure that they can’t access adult websites, for example.”

Some parental control apps include Bark, Qustodio and Aura, Silva said.

Communication is key

As children get older, Silva said parents can loosen the reins a bit, stressing that communication is key.

“Maybe as they get older, you’re not looking at all of their texts and chats, but you’re talking to them about what online responsibility looks like,” Silva said. “They’re aware of risks that other people in their own age group have experienced, and they know warning signs.”

Some warning signs children should be aware of are online grooming behaviors.

“If somebody is asking them to keep a relationship private, if somebody is asking them to send photos that are inappropriate or asking them inappropriate questions, if somebody who they don’t know is asking them to meet up, these are all grooming behaviors,” Silva said. “And if you’ve had those conversations, over and over again, hopefully that youth would begin to recognize those things. Does that mean that you can control everything? No. What we like to say is that these things are speed bumps, right? They’re not walls, and so, you really have to keep those lines of communication open and really do your best.”

Kids may try to hide things on devices 

Silva also reminds parents that children may try to hide things on their devices.

“There are apps that kids can download that are, they look like one thing, but they’re another thing,” Silva said. “For example, it looks like a dictionary, but it’s actually an AI chatbot. So things are absolutely getting past parents all the time, and that’s where the open communication really comes into play. I spend a lot of time going through my daughter’s phone and iPad. She’s 12. I feel like I will spend less time doing that as she gets older, but it is a time commitment on the parents’ side.”

For parents looking for resources to learn more about things like parental controls, including tutorials on how to lock things down on a child’s phone, Silva suggested websites including Common Sense Media, Connect Safely and Internet Matters. 

A summer full of music kicks off this weekend with Pittonkatonk. There are some amazing things to look forward to this year: Free county concerts include shows from Heavy Heavy and the Women in Jazz Festival at South Park, plus Pittsburgh Opera and Arrested Development at Hartwood Acres. The first Turn It Upstream Festival on June 26 features top-tier local acts like Beauty Slap and NASH.V.ILL. And ’90s nostalgia buffs can enjoy the Spin Doctors and Joan Osborne at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

As always, find even more things to do in Pittsburgh in our Weekend and Monthly Event Guides.

Pete Spynda’s Pittonkatonk — a celebration of world music, horns and drums — has opened the local outdoor festival season since 2014. This year’s lineup includes Colombian star Yeison Landero, the Undertow Brass Band and local artists Timbeleza and the Eagleburger Band. 

There will be more than 350 musical acts on 32 stages, along with visual artists, comedians and poets in Millvale — and it’s all free. The two-day event includes classical music at St. Nicholas Church — and almost every other kind of music — all over the borough Friday night and all day Saturday. 

Allegheny County Summer Concert Series

All shows start at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted

South Park Amphitheater (All shows on Friday):

• June 5 River City Brass
• June 12 Jimmie Ross & The Jaggerz
• June 19 Coltt Winter Lepley & The Briar Valley Rangers
• June 26 Red Wanting Blue
• July 3 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8:15 p.m.)
• July 10 The Heavy Heavy
• July 17 Orleans
• July 24 Ruthie Foster
• July 31 Don McLean
• Aug. 7 Matthias Lattin & Dylan Triplett
• Aug. 14 Women in Jazz Festival, featuring Su Terry, Deanna Witkowski Trio and Camille Thurman with the Darrell Green Quartet
• Aug. 21 Tamburitzans
• Aug. 28 Summer of Love Revue
• Sept. 4 Reb Beach

Hartwood Acres Park Amphitheater (All shows on Sunday):

• June 7 Pittsburgh Opera
• June 14 Melinda & The Night Sky
• June 21 Yacht Rocket
• June 28 Tito Puente Jr. and Nestor Torres
• July 5 America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8:15 p.m., $30 suggested donation to benefit the county Department of Human Services)
• July 12 The Fixx
• July 19 Cyril Neville
• July 26 Arrested Development
• Aug. 2 The Wood Brothers
• Aug. 9 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
• Aug. 16 The Lemon Twigs
• Aug. 23 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
• Aug. 30 Blasey Plays the Beatles
• Sept. 6 Buzz Poets

This is TRAF’s first year at its new permanent home on Penn Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets. Aside from the shows listed below, also featured during TRAF at Arts Landing will be the world premiere of Squonk’s “Joy Machine,” running Friday, June 5, through Sunday, June 7; and Bandaloop’s “The Sky Is Not the Limit,” on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13. Additional festival highlights include the Artist Market, Juried Visual Art Exhibition, Giant Eagle Creativity Zone and Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival Dance Battle.

• June 5 Spin Doctors
• June 6 The Pharcyde
• June 11 Buffalo Rose
• June 12 The War and Treaty
• June 13 Delfeayo Marsalis and The Uptown Jazz Orchestra
• June 13 (daytime) The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
• June 14 (evening) Joan Osborne

Check back with NEXT in early June for a full preview of what to expect from this year’s festival.

Summer Fridays, a $5 concert series at the picturesque former home of the Frick family, returns for its 12th season on June 5.

• June 5 The Stemtecs Band
• July 24 The Polkamaniacs 
• August 28 Donora

The Farina Foundation will be at each night of Summer Fridays collecting instruments for a donation drive.

There’s no All Out Festival or Pride on the Shore with nationally known performers this year. But a consortium of local groups, including TransYOUniting and QBurgh, has put together a more low-key Pride celebration. Check their site for entertainment updates.

This free festival produced by Stop the Violence Pittsburgh is now the largest Juneteenth celebration in North America. Expect entertainment for the “grown folk” in Market Square, featuring Final Draft on June 19, Keith Washington the next night and Evelyn Champagne King closing it out on June 21. The lineup at Point State Park might appeal to younger fans: Lloyd, Musiq Soulchild and Fabolous. There will be a vendor market, food and more, as well.

Upstream Pittsburgh, which promotes clean water by protecting watershed ecosystems, celebrates its 25th anniversary with a music festival/fundraiser featuring Beauty Slap, NASH.V.ILL, Colatura and other artists. Along with the music, there will be guided walks and activities highlighting Upstream’s local impact. Tickets here.

Indie-pop singer Michigander headlines the free music event this year, supported by Ratboys, Jobi Riccio, and local artists Cam Chambers and Kahone Concept. There are free rides on the PNC Carousel until 9 p.m., too.

The Blues and Roots Festival has morphed into the Pittsburgh Music Festival with a new location along the Allegheny River. The lineup includes local stars like Gathering Field, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, Billy Price with Bill Toms, and the Sun King Warriors. As in the past, proceeds benefit Band Together and Autism Pittsburgh. Tickets go on sale May 15. More information here.

It’s the North Side’s version of the Millvale Music Festival (or vice versa). There will be three days of free, local music on outdoor stages, in bars and at the Elks Club, along with family activities. The schedule and lineup have not yet been announced.

Headliners include Ally the Piper, Screaming Orphans, Eileen Ivers & the Brigideens as well as locals Bealtaine, the Low Kings, Jim Lamb and more. Look for kids’ activities, ceili dancing, Guinness, Harp, whisky, scones and the like. Tickets available here.

A free outdoor festival with some of the best-known names in jazz. Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bilal and many more played last year. The 2026 lineup will be announced soon.

More music

Major events like the city’s Fourth of July celebration, Picklesburgh and Barrel and Flow will also feature live, outdoor music. Both WYEP and the City of Pittsburgh will host neighborhood concerts, and Hazelwood Local is bringing back its Summer Sounds on Hazelwood Green. Municipalities including South Fayette, Monroeville, McCandless and many others have summer concerts too.