For those who can afford it, it’s nearly time for families to gas up their cars and minivans for summer car trips. When I was a kid, that meant fighting over the car radio, but now there are lots of electronic options available to entertain the family as the miles pass.

Many cars these days have DVD screens in the backseat – some have two. And for those who don’t have a DVD player built-in, there’s always the possibility of watching movies on a laptop perched on the backseat.

But is keeping kids entertained the whole time really such a good idea?

When my kids were young, my wife and I didn’t allow them to watch movies when we took car trips. Patti argued that kids should spend their time looking out the window or engaging in conversation and I agreed.

We did allow our kids to listen to music, on CDs or their iPods, but they weren’t allowed to use headphones in the car. Instead, we played the iPod through the car’s audio system so that everyone could share the same music and same experience.

For one particularly long trip I created different playlists with the favorite music of various family members. Again, plugging it into the car stereo, we took turns listening to each other’s music. The whole idea of the car trip was to be together as a family and not have anyone isolate themselves with their earbuds.

Sharing music had its advantages and difficult moments. I’ll never forget when our 15-year-old daughter brought home one of rap artist Eminem’s CDs with some pretty disturbing lyrics. We didn’t ban the music but played it through the audio system for all to “enjoy.” Actually, I did like his voice and beat, but Patti and I objected to the way he objectified women and to some of his more explicit language. But rather than turning it off, we turned it into a teachable moment, asking our daughter what she found appealing about the songs and pointing out what we considered objectionable.

I remember one particular discussion about the “B Word” – the one that likens a human female to a female dog. My daughter thought it was fine, but we disagreed. Years later, she came around to our way of thinking, which goes to show that sometimes you do have an impact, even when you don’t see it in the moment!

At the risk of stating the obvious, digital photography is one of the great revolutions of our time. By eliminating the cost of film and developing-and making cameras cheaper, smaller and more readily available-the technology has sparked a renaissance in photo taking.

Now that most cell phones have built-in cameras, digital cameras are literally everywhere and always with us. Even those of us who don’t think to pack our cameras when we leave the house probably have a camera, thanks to cell phones. This, of course, raises some safety and privacy concerns for children and teens.

If your child has a cell phone with a camera, make sure you talk about appropriate use. They should never share pictures that include other people without their permission and should never use those cameras for snapping photos of people who are not dressed appropriately or in compromising positions. Having fun at a slumber party is fine; taking pictures of friends in their nighties or underwear is definitely off limits. And make sure your kids are aware of what others around them are doing with their cameras.

But there are plenty of great things about digital photography. One of the biggest changes is the way we show off our pictures. Until a few years ago, the only way to share photos was through prints, but most digital pictures taken today are never printed.  Instead, they’re viewed on a screen instead of paper or, I suppose, never shared at all.

In some cases, we share our pictures by showing them to our friends and family on our camera or phone’s LCD screen. That gives us that instant gratification that my generation first enjoyed back with Polaroid cameras. But unlike those very pricey Polaroid prints, digital images are free.

Speaking of free, there are also a number of ways to share photos online, including social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, as well as dedicated photo sharing sites like Flickr (part of Yahoo!), SnapFish, Shutterfly, Picasa and Photobucket.

Whichever service you use, you’re sure to find some great features including the ability to create albums that you can share online with friends and family. And if you’re one of those people who like pictures on paper, don’t despair. Most of these services, including Flickr, allow you or your family and friends to order prints.

I think of sites like Club Penguin and ZooKazoo as social networks on training wheels.

These sites, generally aimed at kids between about six and 12 (Penguin goes up to 14 but it’s hard to imagine they have very many users that age), provide an opportunity for kids to interact in a much more limited way than social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo which are off-limits to pre-teens.

In both Club Penguin and ZooKazoo kids represent themselves as “avatars.” An avatar is a cartoon-like character that serves as the surrogate for the child. The image of the avatar (not a picture of the actual child) walks around, “talks” with other characters and engages in various games and experiences. In the case of Club Penguin the avatar is a particular penguin that the child chooses. In ZooKazoo your avatar is called a “zelf” and it can be a monkey, cat, bear or other character.

Children can communicate in these virtual worlds but there are limits. Either they can have free chat or—at the parent’s option—be limited to chatting only by selecting pre-existing phrases. Both sites have filters to prevent “bad words” as well as dumb stuff like when a child tries to type in a phone number.

Even with safety tools in place, parents still need to monitor how their kids are using these services. Exercising good cyber-citizenship (don’t be mean or bully) is very important and it’s also important for kids to know that if anyone is mean to them, it’s not the victim’s fault that someone is being rude and obnoxious

Both sites have limited free memberships but to get full benefits families have to pay—typically about $5.95 a month. The sites do not display advertising.