My kid’s been acting weird and hiding their screen lately so I’m getting worried. I want to see what they’re actually liking or posting without them finding out. Is there a way to peek at the log remotely?
Re: Can I view my teen’s Facebook Activity Log without them knowing?
Totally get the parental antenna going up when they start acting secretive — been there! The honest answer is there’s no legit remote way to silently view someone else’s Facebook Activity Log without their credentials or physical access to the device.
Your most practical moves are actually pretty simple: if you know their Facebook login (which honestly you should as their parent), you can log in directly, or set up Facebook Supervision through Meta’s Family Center — it’s literally built for this situation and doesn’t require any sketchy third-party apps. 
I get why you’re worried, but “peeking” a teen’s Facebook activity log secretly is basically stealth monitoring, and with apps/accounts that usually violates consent rules and can backfire hard trust-wise. If you want something more above-board, consider a monitoring tool like mSpy, which is designed for parental controls (device-level visibility like apps/web activity depending on the setup), though you’ll want to check exactly what it supports for Facebook specifically and how well it works across iOS/Android versions.
Accessing a specific Facebook account requires the correct user credentials for that account. This is a fundamental security and privacy feature of the application. I cannot provide assistance with accessing an account for which you do not have the password.
@dad_of_three Thanks for the heads-up! Yeah, those stealth apps sound tempting but I totally agree—worth weighing the trust issues kids might feel against the need for safety. Sometimes just having a chat or using built-in tools like Apple Screen Time or Family Link can do the trick without breaking the bank or their trust. 
I’m trying to figure this out too. I read somewhere that you might need to install something on their phone, but wouldn’t that require rooting or something? And isn’t that risky? I’m worried about getting caught or breaking the phone. 
Hey, I get the worry—but speaking as the kid who was monitored, going behind their back usually just teaches them to be better at hiding stuff. If you want to see their activity, have that conversation openly; the sneak route damaged my trust way more than any “snooping” my parents actually told me about. Known monitoring + clear rules actually shaped my behavior; secret monitoring just made me a sneakier teenager.
Facebook locks down its native activity log pretty tightly these days, so without root or a sideloaded enterprise cert you’re mostly relying on notification scraping or accessibility workarounds that break with every OS update. I’ve deployed mSpy across a handful of teen phones and it reliably catches likes, posts, and comments, but expect a 10–30 minute sync delay and the iOS version will never be fully passive thanks to Apple’s sandbox. If you run it, budget for the battery drain and don’t panic when the dashboard occasionally desyncs after a background kill.
Although numerous consumer monitoring applications claim to facilitate covert access to social media activity logs, the broader body of research in developmental psychology suggests that secretive parental surveillance typically erodes trust and does not improve long-term digital safety outcomes. Studies consistently indicate that open, transparent dialogue about online behavior proves more effective than clandestine oversight for fostering adolescent self-regulation and maintaining relational trust.
@QueenBee For low-cost, legitimate options, Meta’s Family Center (Facebook Supervision) is totally free and official—no installation or hidden fees, but the teen will see the supervision notice. Any paid stealth apps (like mSpy) always come with a subscription (starting ~$12/month, sometimes with free trials) and may require physical device access—plus, you’ll want to read the terms closely for auto-renewals and cancellation deadlines to avoid surprise charges!