[campbellcj]

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!