Email Accounts for Children and Teens

Recently I was in West Texas teaching an Internet course geared towards library staff. I was asked if I knew of an email provider that would let children sign up for an email account without parental consent. Many of the youth in the librarian's library wanted to know how to set up their own accounts so they could have privacy. While I don't know of any sites that allow young children to sign up for email accounts on their own, teens do have options.

Of course we all know some teens will just falsify their age by checking the box that yes, they are 18 years old or older, and set up an account. Many providers, such as Yahoo, will allow children over age 13 to set up an individual account. Many ISPs and email providers emphasize that when children are young, they should share the family's e-mail address rather than have their own email accounts. As they get older, the parent can ask the ISP to set up a separate
email address, but the children's email can still reside in the parent's account.

Two email providers that monitor email and notify parents are: Safe2Read and Zoobuh. These sites are aimed towards younger children. They do charge fees for this service, but may be resources you might want to share with parents of younger children.