Virtual parenting refers to parent-child contact through video calls, telephone calls, text messages, and other electronic means when in-person parenting time is not immediately possible. It is not a substitute for in-person parenting time but it is a meaningful supplement to it and is sometimes used as a transitional tool.

Virtual parenting provisions should be included in parenting plans for families where one parent travels frequently for work, where the parents live at a distance from each other, where supervised or restricted parenting time makes in-person contact difficult, or where the child's schedule makes consistent in-person contact challenging.

Virtual contact provisions should specify the technology platform if possible, the frequency and duration of calls, who initiates contact, the protocol if a scheduled call cannot happen, and what happens if one parent repeatedly interferes with virtual contact.

Virtual parenting is not appropriate as a replacement for meaningful in-person parenting time in most circumstances. Courts view it as an addition to a parenting plan rather than an alternative to physical presence. These should not be used as a stalking method of the other parent or to harass the children about their whereabouts. All forms of phone communication should be detailed in the Parenting Plan.