At what age should kids get email accounts?
 

Need some opinions from the PPOT brain trust. Sorry if this was discussed before - if so I missed it.

1) What is the general wisdom re. when to let kids have their own email accounts?

2) Is there a particular mail host (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, apple .me/.mac, etc.) that is more "kid friendly" than others?

3) What degree of parental monitoring or account lock-down, if any, makes sense?

Background:

My son is 10 1/2 years-old and highly tech savvy. He's been fiddling with computers and gadgets since age 2, has an iPhone, and is heavily into gaming. He is also involved in several "offline" activities where info is propagated via email. It's getting to be a hassle having all the communications funnel through mom and me, especially trivial stuff like password resets or newsletters for his online games. I'm just not sure if it is 'normal' for a kid his age to have email, or abnormal not to!

Thanks!

10YO With a high degree of supervision. They need to get in the game.
Just my .02

i would say @ 12 ish. 8th grade or so. i mean who the heck are they going to email?
that being said, my kids, 14-17, rarely ever use email anymore. its all FB or Twitter, etc..

10 depending on the kid should be good.

Few things to remember:

1) no pc, laptop, tablet, other email device in the bedroom. Only in common areas.
2) Remind him that you are always reading his email.
3) Lecture repeatedly that NOTHING on the interwebs is private, ever.

You can use gmail. In gmail, you can set it up to copy all in/out messages to your own account. He's a smart fellow, and may undo that. That's instant grounding IMO.

Also, brush up on your 1337 sp34|{. If he's a gamer, you'll need it.

Good luck.

I created gmail accounts for my kids as soon as I had invites, just to reserve their names. I log into 'em once a month or so, but have not given the details to the kids yet.

Oldest (11) has an email account on *my* server w/ my domain... and there is a secondary account that gets copies of everything sent/received... haven't felt the need to go look at it, but I can if I want to.

FWIW, her cell phone is phone and text only. And the computers in the house she can use are all in "public" spaces... should she get her own laptop (probably will soonish) then I have other things I can do to lock it down...

Yep, I'd do something that you can supervise.

Also, if he's so tech savvy, do you know for certain he doesn't have his own e-mail already?

Okay, you can probably be reasonably certain at 10, but I know at 13 or so, I would have just signed up for my own account on some service without telling my parents. (Let's forget for a minute that free, public e-mail didn't exist when I was that age.)

My kids needed to have one in 7th grade.

Teachers communicate with them, answer questions, etc. through email at that age in our school. Kids turn in assignments via email.

BTW, if you think you can monitor what your kids see on the internet, LOL.

That ship sailed a long time ago.

Maybe in 3rd grade or something, but by middle school, kids are packing iPads, iPhones, etc. everywhere, all the time. Most of them have full access. So, even if your kid doesn't have internet access, when everyone else at school does, there's nothing you can do about it. Unless you plan on quitting your job and shadowing your kid 24/7.

I would find a provider where you can set the controls so that every email that is sent to them is copied to an account you own. Every email that is sent from them should be treated the same.

Opendns is a minor way to help you filter them or use parental controls to protect them from 'the Internet'.

=-)

Haha it's just email

What's going to happen?
Some Nigerian swindleing him out of his lunch money?

Use it as a way to get him started early on the art of being punctual where required and ambiguous and reserved about personal details. Test him by sending emails to him from accounts you made up.

It's a good time to teach him now because kids take what their parents say very seriously. Teenagers really don't give a fuch.

Thanks guys. I think I will go ahead and set him up. I do already have his PC account as well as OpenDNS locked-down somewhat. All online devices are in the open, no 'screens' allowed in the bedrooms. BTW I know nearly all of the email will be inbound, with an occasional reply back. He uses his iPhone to text a few people such as us, grandma and his guitar teacher and I anticipate text use growing with very little outbound email happening.