My 12 year old has been asking for her own email address.
She does not have her own computer, but she is able to use mine. I would like to limit her exposure to inappropriate spam, for obvious reasons, but other than that I think it might be good for her to be able to communicate with her friends and teachers, and receive school messages, etc. independent of my email. (with the understanding that we still have the right to screen any of her mail)
Do any of you have any experiences, bad or good, with kids having their own addresses? Any other advice about kids and email? Any recommendations as to a service that provides safe email, without seeming too "little kiddish"? I would be grateful for any opinions you have on the subject!
Thanks,
L.
Thanks!
Both of my daughter's have e-mail accounts and they do not receive any unsolicited spam, only things they have signed up for with our permission. Just make sure you set her up as a child's account
When they want start using they socializing web site (xango, myspace, facebook) things are a little bit harder to moniter. We purchased tracking software so we can moniter everything that the kids do on the computer.
We let my 11 year old son have his own e-mail last year. I made him set the password to something I would remember, and I go in and check his account frequently. We use yahoo, which is free, and we don't seem to get spammed at all. I would say the only negative is that you can not control what types of things your daughters friends will send her . So far, we have had a few maybe inappropriate jokes, nothing pornographic or racial, but a bit rude perhaps. Let your daughter know you will have free access and she will no doubt let her friends know that as well. She is at a good age to start.
interesting, my three sons mirror your 3 daughters ages. Isn't it fun :)!
My almost seven year old daughter has had her own email account for a couple years now. The only spam she gets is from websites she goes to and puts her email address into. She doesn't go to crazy websites, so she doesn't get crazy spam. The rest gets caught in the spam filter, she doesn't even look at it. It's a good way for her to communicate with family and with me when she's at her dad's. She really likes reading her email, so it's been a positive experience for us.
My daughter is almost 11 and has her own email address for about a year. I think it's like our days of talking on the phone. Her and her friends will send little messages to each other and stuff. Also, if I see something I think she might like, I just send her the link. She thinks it's pretty cool. She is also under the understanding she is not allowed to enter her email into anything for newsletters and such unless she has my permission. She knows if she wants to keep her email, she has to follow my rules. It's worked out so far.
