Guidance for Email Accounts and Online Security for 7 year old

[Notjustamum10]

DS’s school is setting up online learning this week, and have asked us to give our 7 year old kids access to an email address.

Up to now I’ve just let DS on my iPad for short periods to use Sumdog app or watch something on Kids iPlayer. Now I will have to set him up with his own email account, Apple ID etc, and it seems like a bit of a minefield in terms of security and privacy! Any straightforward quick-start guidance out there for novices / luddites like me?

gmail now allow you to set up accounts for kids under 13, with additional safety features. how to do so is here. I don't think he needs an apple ID, as that will require setting up the ipad all over again. you can use the inbuilt screentime controls (found within the ipad settings) to restrict what your son looks at (on the web) when he is on the ipad. there are lots of tutorials on how to do this online.

all the best x

They just need access to an email address can they not just use yours. It’s probably just to receive log in details or work in which case you can open the email, give them the log in details and log out. Or open the email and print the work, or access the link. If your child wants to respond you can be with them as you don’t really want them sending messages unsupervised anyway. Perhaps find out exactly what they need and what it’s for.

I think I would read "access to an email address" as being able to send and receive emails via yours or whoever is going to be supervising the majority of home learning. It will likely only to be to receive log in and instructions etc or to check in with any concerns. No 7 year old should have unsupervised access to an unrestricted email address anyway, so there should be no issue with it being yours. If you want to keep it separate from your own emails just set yourself up a new email and you and your child can check it together. Don't let your 7 year old have the password for a normal account, you are right to be cautious about that.

(If the school really is insisting they have their own, then the onus is on the school to sort it and ensure it has appropriate security. Our school have given every child an email address which can only send and receive emails from other school email addresses. I appreciate this is not the norm at primary level. It is at a level of restriction that I feel comfortable allowing an 8 year old to use entirely on their own.)

As a result of online gaming with friends (which is actually quite good for social interaction with this distancing) I've gone through the minefield of Xbox account setup. It requires a Microsoft account which provides an outlook email. So my 7 year old has one.

He doesn't know how to get to it though! Microsoft also do the family thing so you have control over some stuff, but the layers are complex and I keep going in to ensure that no random stuff appears.

I'd say set your child up

Hit send too soon...

Set your child up with an account but only you have access to it!

"Access to an email address" just means your email address.