Email for kids: when to start and how

Sooner or later your child will want to write to Grandma themselves or send a friend a holiday photo. Their own email address is a good place to start. This guide covers how to tell when the time is right and how to set up that first address.

What age is right?

There's no fixed age. What matters more is whether your child wants to write to someone and whether you're ready to help at the start. Reading and writing don't have to be perfect if the app reads aloud and lets your child dictate.

Juhupost is made for children aged about 6 to 12. At that age, children mostly write to people they know, such as grandparents, godparents or a best friend. An address book that you control covers that.

A good first step is a mail to someone who's sure to reply. When Grandma writes back the next day, your child quickly gets the idea of email.

Why email?

An email address doesn't need a phone number or a phone of their own. A tablet on Wi-Fi is enough. An email can be long and carry pictures, and you can answer it whenever it suits you. And nearly everyone has an address, including grandparents and school.

What to agree on first

• Whom your child may write to, and how new contacts get added.
• That they tell you when a mail seems odd or frightens them.
• That passwords, your home address and phone numbers don't belong in emails.
• That they ask friends before sending a photo of them.
• What you as parents can see and what you can't.

Choosing the address

Your child may keep this address for years. A few things help when choosing it:

• A first name with something added usually works better than a full name.
• Leave out the year of birth. It gives away their age.
• Pick something that won't be embarrassing at 14.
• A family domain, such as mia@familyname.com, looks good and belongs to you.

Which providers work with Juhupost is explained under Providers.

Five steps to the first mail

1. Create a mailbox for your child, for example with Posteo or mailbox.org.
2. Install Juhupost on your Android phone and connect the mailbox.
3. Add the first contacts and choose whom your child may write to.
4. Pair your child's device with a QR code.
5. Write the first mail together, ideally to someone who will reply quickly.

Setup in detail, with pictures

A regular mail app or Juhupost?

A child can start with an ordinary mail app, too. The main differences are what gets through and who needs the password.

When something goes wrong

If an unpleasant mail does arrive, perhaps from a contact, staying calm matters more than punishment. Read the mail together and talk about it. In Juhupost you can take a contact out of the address book or block a sender at any time. Your child should know they can come to you with things like this.