Email for kids?
Wed Aug 01, 2007 at 07:17:05 AM PDT
So, pastordan and I have been recently blessed with a 4yo and a 10yo. It's a very different experience parenting in this manner. You don't get to start out from the beginning doing things the way you want to. And on top of it, we're the 4th foster placement (hopefully the last) so we have a lot of different parents and parenting styles influencing these kids. Needless to say, we've had to decide really quickly our position on lots of things.
One area that we're working on right now is computer use. We've set limits on screen time and where the kids may visit on the computer and feel pretty good about that.
However, Sister Bear (who is the 10yo) has some friends from her prior community that she would like to keep in touch with. A few of them have passed on email addresses and she'd like one of her own so that she can correspond.
We're completely stuck on what to do here - since we can't fall back on the way our own parents did it, we figured we'd get some opinions here.
So....
Do you allow your child to have an email account?
At what age do you feel it's appropriate for kids to have email?
Are there any safeguards you use to monitor email?
Are there any email providers specific to kids? Parental controls?
Thanks for your expertise!
