At what age did your child get their first email account?

[NotSoObvious]

I'm thinking it would be good for their typing skills, but I'm a little nervous about it getting out of hand. How do you monitor it?

[Coffeemama]

My DD8 has an account set up so that she can only receive emails from people listed in her address book.

[NotSoObvious]

My DD8 has an account set up so that she can only receive emails from people listed in her address book.

 

Ooh. I didn't even know you could do this.

 

Do you use Yahoo? Google?

[*Lulu*]

Punk has an account, but we closely monitor it and he is only allowed to give his email address to people if he asks DH and me. We made a big deal of choosing an email address that had zero identifying information in it so if it does inadvertently get around we can just close it down and move on with out someone having sensitive info.

 

ETA he was 9 when the account was opened.

Edited August 12, 2012 by BLA5

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Oldest was 9. She has a Gmail account in my name (but with her first name as the reply-to address), and copies of all her emails get forwarded to me so I can make sure no inappropriate conversation is happening and can zip in and delete potential spam before she even sees it (she knows this is happening). Gmail seems to have the best spam filter going, and she asks me before she gives out her email address to anyone. It took me a little while to get comfortable with it, but we haven't had any problems (thus far anyway--knock on wood!).

[Luckymama]

Youngest was 10----her best friend moved 900 miles away in the middle of the school year. Now the girls prefer to text each other :) She is only allowed to email people she knows (a very short list of friends plus some far-away family) and automatically deletes any emails from a sender she doesn't recognize. Dh set the spam filter very high on her account.

[PeterPan]

Last year in 7th. Just so you know, once your dc has an email address, they can suddenly sign up for ANYTHING online without you realizing it. You want to think through your whole policy there of what they can and cannot do and how you monitor it. We have a couple simple rules true, but I also have a very clear plan where I can enforce it. I'm no longer so glib as to think a child will actually follow the rule just because you give it. :lol:

 

On a mac you can set up user accounts and define the level (admin, parental controls, etc.). I think Windows has something similar. That for me was the easiest way to set it up. That way I had the entirety of *her* surfing/internet history logged separately from mine. Makes it quick and easy to check when you want to know what they're up to. And the parental controls, at least on the mac, log history in an additional place beyond what the dc user can access. That way even if they delete what *they* can find, there's still a log.

 

To me it has nothing to do with trusting them and everything to do with keeping them safe. In our house the rules are:

 

-No Facebook. If you want to see it on facebook, ask and I will take you there. Absolutely, positively no facebook. End of story.

-No signing up for anything without asking. I'll let you sign up for anything reasonable, but if you sign up without asking I'm gonna come down really hard.

 

At this point I also have it set up to approve all new senders or recipients, so I know what's going on with her email.

 

Yes, getting the account was great for her typing. We also switched to Mavis Beacon (software) and the Dvorak keyboard layout. It was a rather huge shift for her, as she was having trouble with QWERTY and pecking. I wanted to stop the pecking, and of course you can't peck when you can't see what in the world the keys are. :D The email account was hugely motivating. It wouldn't have taught her to type, because it doesn't seem like kids this age generally type that much of intelligence. It's more in the realm of texting via internet honestly, just pathetic. She doesn't do that abbreviated junk, but she has friends who do. You read the emails and can't even tell what they're saying.

[dm379]

Both mine got one last year. They mainly use it to keep in touch with dh. They don't know their password. I log them in each time they want to use it. This way I can delete spam.

[Parrothead]

About age 10.

[coffeegal]

Last year in 7th. Just so you know, once your dc has an email address, they can suddenly sign up for ANYTHING online without you realizing it. You want to think through your whole policy there of what they can and cannot do and how you monitor it. We have a couple simple rules true, but I also have a very clear plan where I can enforce it. I'm no longer so glib as to think a child will actually follow the rule just because you give it. :lol:

 

On a mac you can set up user accounts and define the level (admin, parental controls, etc.). I think Windows has something similar. That for me was the easiest way to set it up. That way I had the entirety of *her* surfing/internet history logged separately from mine. Makes it quick and easy to check when you want to know what they're up to. And the parental controls, at least on the mac, log history in an additional place beyond what the dc user can access. That way even if they delete what *they* can find, there's still a log.

 

To me it has nothing to do with trusting them and everything to do with keeping them safe. In our house the rules are:

 

-No Facebook. If you want to see it on facebook, ask and I will take you there. Absolutely, positively no facebook. End of story.

-No signing up for anything without asking. I'll let you sign up for anything reasonable, but if you sign up without asking I'm gonna come down really hard.

 

 

 

:iagree: We wait until 13 for e-mail accounts.

[scrappyhappymama]

We let our son get an email account when he turned 10.

 

We decided to use a specialized email account that allows us to limit the emails he receives and sends to addresses we've pre-approved. If he gets an email from an unapproved address, it goes to my husband's email account first and he can forward it on or not. It also automatically sends copies of any emails our son writes to my husband as well. That way, his email use is fully monitored and we are able to give him feedback on how to word things more appropriately if necessary.

 

With this level of oversight, there is no danger of him signing up for sites that require an email, because the confirmations will go through my husband first. Once our son gets older, we have the option to loosen the controls and give him more privacy, allow emails from unknown addresses, etc.

 

The program we use is called Zoobuh. We do pay a small annual fee for the account, but it does exactly what we hoped it would do for a starter, practice email account.

[happypamama]

DD 10 got a gmail account a few months ago. I set it up and know the password (she does as well, but she's only allowed to use it with my permission, when schoolwork and chores are done). Her address is never to be entered anywhere; if we need an address for something, I have a couple of junk ones that we use. Gmail let me set things up so that everything she receives also copies to one of my email addresses, which means I know before she does if she has anything and can monitor it. (She's received no spam thus far, but I've always been very pleased with gmail's spam filters; they're very good, and I don't receive much spam in my regular inboxes at all, so I feel that gmail is a very good choice for a young person, though not a substitute for parental supervision, of course.)

 

No Facebook for her. And the deal is that if I ever find that she's used her address to sign up for anything (or that she's signed my address up without permission), I will change her email password, and she'll no longer have access to it.

Edited August 12, 2012 by happypamama

[BakersDozen]

Our 3 older dc just got an email account this summer so they could use Khan Academy. The other dc do not have an email and will not until it is their turn for Khan. All emails come through our family email.

[dbmamaz]

My kids got their first accounts when the public school gave them laptops, in 6th grade. So i guess they were 11?

 

Now, i know I posted on another thread that I dont ask my kids passwords, but i wanted my kids to do Khan Academy, and they needed a fb or google account, so I made a google account jointly with my youngest, who was i guess 7?

 

Then when I wanted pen pals for him to practice writing, I realized he could use his email for that. i can also email him links to web pages I want him to go to (BBC Dance Mat typing!). He also is learning that he can email his dad to ask permission before downloading free games from the web (our family rule).

 

So its come in quite handy.

 

Oh, and he gives me ALL his passwords, for safe keeping!

[swellmomma]

13 when they needed it for facebook, before that they use my email and I screen all incoming and outgoing messages

[justLisa]

Mine are 6 and 8 and they have them.

 

However, we have servers here. They ONLY get emails from people in their address book, and we get any new senders first and have to approve them. DH keeps a tight control on the incoming emails. They do have privacy though, and I do not monitor because I know who is emailing them.

[CupOCoffee]

My kids have each had them for about a year; but only for Khan and other places for doing school related work. They don't use them for anything else.

 

They do NOT have Face Book accounts either. We just see no need for such things. I guess we are really old fashioned -- we talk on the phone and talk in person to those we want to talk to. Perhaps if they had pen pals, or needed to keep in touch with a parent/grandparent who lived far away we might have a different stance, but for now, there is no need.

 

Mine don't have cell phones, TVs in their rooms or any other of the many tech gadgets that so many kids seem to have either. And I know from previous threads here that many on WTM have the same opinion.

[LucyStoner]

7 but we have a no social networking rule and we keep tabs on his account periodically. He plays correspondence chess with his godfather, emails his grandparents and 2 friends. Nothing outside that. When he signs up for a website online he has to ask permission and only use our family anony email.

[jujsky]

This year when my kids were 7 and 8 they got their own accounts. They usually check the e-mail on their Nooks and I put e-mail address in their address books of family and friends. Those are the only people they e-mail. My mom sent me a copy of DS's best e-mail. It was something like, "Dear Grammie, I just saw this show on TV and THE WORLD IS GOING TO END SOON! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!" with a PS at the bottom, "I have enough money for this Lego set so Papa is going to stop at the Lego store after work and buy it for me."

 

Most of his e-mails to me consist of, "I can't sleep" to which I reply, "You're not supposed to be on your Nook. Shut it off and go to bed!"

[happypamama]

They do NOT have Face Book accounts either. We just see no need for such things. I guess we are really old fashioned -- we talk on the phone and talk in person to those we want to talk to. Perhaps if they had pen pals, or needed to keep in touch with a parent/grandparent who lived far away we might have a different stance, but for now, there is no need.

 

Mine don't have cell phones, TVs in their rooms or any other of the many tech gadgets that so many kids seem to have either. And I know from previous threads here that many on WTM have the same opinion.

 

My kids talk occasionally via cell phone to their grandparents, but DD emails with them sometimes too. It would be nicer if the grandparents lived closer! But my kids do not have their own computers, e-readers, i-anythings, cell phones, mp3 players, or TVs. They are allowed, within reason, to borrow DH's/mine, but I do not feel a need for them to have their own of any of that stuff. DD doesn't really *need* an email address, but she wanted one, and I felt that maybe that was a reasonable step as a 10yo, given that I control who has the address (so far, it's only her aunts, uncles, and grandparents in addition to DH and me; DH sends me links that he thinks the kids would enjoy, and now he sends them directly to DD instead).