Should your child have an email address?

Your child maybe already accessing the Internet and may already be home to the concept of emails.  Most kids use the Internet as a quick and effective help with their school assignments but very soon, they might want to socialize with their friends online. It is then that they might ask you to get them an email id or email address. But how do you decide if they are ready?

You as a parent would have the final say as to when your kid should have an email address. There are a number of factors that could help you determine as to when is the right time to give an email account to your kid.  A few of them could be as below.

• Age of your child: Consider the age of your child while deciding to give him or her an email account. When you know that your kid has an email account, its time to set some rules. If some stranger manages to get the email ID and mails your kid, do you trust your child to ignore it? Will they stick to the rules you set for him? If you have your doubts, let him share your email ID for now.
• Reason for email address: The reason why your child might want an email ID is also of much importance. If your child is accessing chat rooms,he might want an email as a point of contact. This might sound rosy, but chat rooms are the places where predatorsare looking for children. This is where caution needs to be exercised. Make sure that your kid is using the email IDto communicate with known people and maybe, friends and relatives.

• Use Email address provided by ISP: If you have a paid Internet connection, you would most likely get an email ID from your provider. This email ID might be a good one to be given to your child as opposed to other popular ones like Hotmail or maybe Yahoo. The reason is simple. Internet service provider email ID’s get lesser junk. This reduces the chance of your kid getting exposedto email spams or junk adult mails.
• Free/personal email address: If you want your kid to have a personal email ID, you might want to help him set it up. Many parents fail to see as to how much an email ID can reveal. For beginners, make sure that the email ID does not have the full name of your kid. Next, there might be a profile you would need to fill.Many email programs like Yahoo and the like ask you to do so.Some of the information, like your kid’s name maybe insecurely published. So, use your judgment or create a nickname, which could be used by your child.

The above arguments make it clear that there are both pros and cons to decide upon if you decide to give your
child an email ID, especially if they are young. If you do decide to give an email ID, make sure that you set some
of the rules in place. Also, make sure that you use your judgement to the best of your abilities.

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