Kids Email 101

I'm going to post a series of brief articles regarding kids' use of the internet and online social media  based on my personal experience as an educational software developer for over 25 years as well as my education experience having worked with school districts.

First up: email accounts for students.

Mainstream email services require users to be 13 or older, but many students younger than that need or want email addresses, sometimes even at the direction of their teachers. The federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 forbids websites from collecting personal information from children under 13, so all email and social websites in the US do not allow younger students to legitimately create accounts. Of course, users may set up such accounts by providing a date of birth prior to 2000.

So what should parents and guardians do? It's up to them. Neither I nor a school can condone such a personal decision.

In 2011, a Consumer Reports survey reported that Facebook had over 7.5 million active, underage users, and more than 5 million of those were under 11 years old. That was almost 3 years ago, and the numbers have surely risen dramatically since then for all types of online social media accounts. Many families allow their kids to get email addresses because of the practical benefits, and I've seen many children under 13 use email addresses responsibly. But obviously some children may not be ready for the responsibility of having an online account.

If you do set up an email address for any child of any age, there are several common sense practices to follow:

1. Set up your child's accounts yourself, with their input
2. Make sure you know your child's account login and password, and make it clear that these can not be changed without your permission. Ever.
3. You do not need to set up the account with an actual birth date; you are simply providing free market research if you do. I use fake data whenever possible when setting up accounts, although I usually use the correct birth year (if before 2000) and zip code so that basic age and location features work.
4. Many people believe Gmail is the best free email service. I concur.
5. Set up a forwarding email address so that you get a copy of all incoming and outgoing email from your child's account. In Gmail, this is done under the Settings gear popup menu.
6. Some email services, like Gmail, provide 1 or more additional services with your account, such as online Chat, that you may wish to turn off. In Gmail, you can turn Chat off in the Settings, however other features such as the Google+ social media site require a discussion with your child in order to avoid.
7. Go over basic email send and receive features with your child so they know what to do.
8. Explain what SPAM, unsolicited emails are and instruct your child to report them, delete them, and ignore them. It's important to never click links inside spam emails, or "sponsored link" ads which appear in banners or sidebars. A good rule of thumb is to never read an email from someone you don't know.
9. Explain to kids that all emails will be public and read by you, and that emails should never contain profanity, sexual content, or other inappropriate words or pictures. They should write emails as if they are talking to a teacher out loud, and use the utmost courtesy and proper language. And of course, children should never give out their names, addresses, or phone numbers without your permission.
10. Moreover, monitor your student's use frequently and communicate with them about features, "netiquette" (internet etiquette), and who they are emailing.

While the awesome power, flexibility, storage capacity, spam filtering and completely free accounts of Gmail work for many parents, some parents may wish to explore email services designed especially for kids with more specific parental controls and possibly fewer ads. The top such services, which cost $1-5 per month, include:

• KidsEmail.org
• Zoobuh.com
• Zilladog.com

This all may seem rather daunting to a parent of a kid who has never used email, but I can say with nearly 110% accuracy that your child will use email at some point in the near future. So if you decide that it's time to let your child use email, talk about it with your child and communicate the important parameters that will help your child avoid many of the common pitfalls of social media.

Suggested Reading

Time magazine article from 2011
YouTube video: How to set up Gmail to monitor your child's email