9 ms·

As father of a 12 year old, the parent has to be a gauge of their maturity level -- I think she's too young for facebook and can wait a year (maybe longer.) I

As father of a 12 year old, the parent has to be a gauge of their maturity level -- I think she's too young for facebook and can wait a year (maybe longer.) I do have issue with email --- she's more than old enough to write/receive email and there's a 13 year old restriction on Gmail (and, subsequently, Khan's Academy!) I think that's ridiculous and had to have the talk about "what rules are safe to ignore."

alttag 15y ago
I concur. My (younger-than-13) children have Gmail accounts (which they don't have the passwords for), partly for use with Khan Academy. With the OS X parental filters, my kids know that mom gets a copy of every email sent to them. When they're 13, we'll relax those restrictions. As for Facebook? Not happening until they have a better grasp of the consequences of publicly sharing information ... which may not occur until well after 13. The Internet doesn't forget. I'd like to not allow my kids to learn that the hard way too early in their lives.
sp332 15y ago
she's more than old enough to write/receive email Really? I'm a 25-year-old guy and some of the spam I get curls my toes.
- kellishaver 15y ago
  I recently set up an email account for my daughter, who is 9, so she could use it to email friends and family (we have family that lives several thousand miles away). When she wants to check it, the rule is we check it first. She doesn't even know the password at the moment. I don't read her private emails from her friends - I think even a 9yr old deserves some privacy and she's a responsible kid, but I do go through and delete spam (which she only gets very rarely since she's not allowed to sign up for things without permission and can only give it to friends at school). That way I can also make sure she's not getting email from MrCreepy47 or something. The main thing, though, is that when we go through it, we talk about it. "This is spam. They're probably just trying to sell you junk and a lot of it isn't appropriate for kids. If you get email from someone you don't know, right now you should just delete it and not even look at it. If something doesn't seem right, tell us so we can look into it." The Internet is a big place that can be dangerous for kids and I think they need some measure of protection, but I also think they need controlled exposure to it so they can be taught how to deal with it - even, and perhaps especially, the bad stuff. Her email is (her nickname)@(her name.com) which she thinks is awesome, so I'm hopeful that by setting it up early and keeping an open dialog about its usage,it will prevent the sneaking around to do things behind our back in the teen years - or at least keep her safer when she does. She's a great kid and generally very responsible, but I'm under no delusions that she's perfect or that she won't make a bad judgement call at some point. I'm just trying to give her the tools and skills to minimize that.
pbhjpbhj 15y ago
I created a gmail account to sign my son up for Khan Academy at age 5. He doesn't really know what email is; though he first 'wrote' his name in an email when he was 2 IIRC. It never crossed my mind to check the age restrictions on gmail. KA appears to be pretty safe so I jumped the hoop for him.
wnight 15y ago
No rule is safe to ignore - even when they're unjust you usually need to subvert them quietly. But every rule should be examined.

alttag 15y ago

I concur. My (younger-than-13) children have Gmail accounts (which they don't have the passwords for), partly for use with Khan Academy. With the OS X parental filters, my kids know that mom gets a copy of every email sent to them. When they're 13, we'll relax those restrictions. As for Facebook? Not happening until they have a better grasp of the consequences of publicly sharing information ... which may not occur until well after 13. The Internet doesn't forget. I'd like to not allow my kids to learn that the hard way too early in their lives.

sp332 15y ago

she's more than old enough to write/receive email Really? I'm a 25-year-old guy and some of the spam I get curls my toes.

kellishaver 15y ago
I recently set up an email account for my daughter, who is 9, so she could use it to email friends and family (we have family that lives several thousand miles away). When she wants to check it, the rule is we check it first. She doesn't even know the password at the moment. I don't read her private emails from her friends - I think even a 9yr old deserves some privacy and she's a responsible kid, but I do go through and delete spam (which she only gets very rarely since she's not allowed to sign up for things without permission and can only give it to friends at school). That way I can also make sure she's not getting email from MrCreepy47 or something. The main thing, though, is that when we go through it, we talk about it. "This is spam. They're probably just trying to sell you junk and a lot of it isn't appropriate for kids. If you get email from someone you don't know, right now you should just delete it and not even look at it. If something doesn't seem right, tell us so we can look into it." The Internet is a big place that can be dangerous for kids and I think they need some measure of protection, but I also think they need controlled exposure to it so they can be taught how to deal with it - even, and perhaps especially, the bad stuff. Her email is (her nickname)@(her name.com) which she thinks is awesome, so I'm hopeful that by setting it up early and keeping an open dialog about its usage,it will prevent the sneaking around to do things behind our back in the teen years - or at least keep her safer when she does. She's a great kid and generally very responsible, but I'm under no delusions that she's perfect or that she won't make a bad judgement call at some point. I'm just trying to give her the tools and skills to minimize that.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago

I created a gmail account to sign my son up for Khan Academy at age 5. He doesn't really know what email is; though he first 'wrote' his name in an email when he was 2 IIRC. It never crossed my mind to check the age restrictions on gmail. KA appears to be pretty safe so I jumped the hoop for him.

wnight 15y ago

No rule is safe to ignore - even when they're unjust you usually need to subvert them quietly. But every rule should be examined.