At what age should I allow my kids to have an e-mail address?

[Edward Hughes]

12 and 14 is fine to have an email address. 10 I'm not so sure. Who would the 10 year old be emailing? If it's just schoolfriends and relatives, then the 10 year old can have an email account, but you should have the password to it, and the child should not have the password to it. That means that when they want to check their email or send email, they are doing it "with" you.

However, sending and receiving email is usually the first step on to other things. Lots of instant chat services use an email address as the user's identity. Lots of social networking sites require an email address in order to sign up. Most of your kids' friends probably use some of these sites already. These sites are not intended for children under 13, and they are full of people who WILL stalk your child.

The most dangerous aspect of online contact for kids is access to a webcam. Do not ever allow a child under 16 to have unsupervised access to a webcam. Not even for ten minutes.

Also think very carefully if your kids have access to camera phones that might get them in trouble through "sexting".

Email addresses are not dangerous, but other things can be.

If your kids go to http://www.hotmail.com they could create an email address for themselves without you even knowing...

It sounds like you have some control over, and knowledge about, what your kids do (and don't do) online, and that is a great thing. Most parents just don't take the slightest interest.

Trying to keep your kids off the internet forever will not work. Give them permission to do things online so long as you are able to monitor what goes on, and are actively involved. If you can, make it impossible for them to be online when you are not in the house. Teach them about fakes and predators online, show them round a few YouTube or Facebook profiles and ask them to spot the friends/subscribers that are obviously suspicious. Make sure they understand that predators target boys as well as girls, and that pictures and even live video can all be faked.

If you really want to know what happens online with kids this age, look here - http://www.webcamsafety.org/