6 Things To Know When Creating Gmail Account For Kids

Nowadays, it is quite common for quite young children to have access to smartphones and tablets. And if they use an Android model, which is the most common, it will be necessary for them to have a Gmail account. To avoid this being a problem with the privacy of the little ones, Google has launched the possibility of creating a Gmail account for children. But these children’s accounts have several limitations compared to adult accounts that must be taken into account.

You Can Control It Through The Family Link

Family Link is the application that Google puts at our disposal to control the use of children’s mobile. And it will also help us to keep track of what our kids do with their email. If you have kids under 13 years old, they will not have any autonomy to receive any message without you being aware of it, so they always have adult supervision.

Of course, if you prefer your child to have their privacy and not control their email, it’s as simple as not looking at it, but it’s nice to have that option.

Chat Is Disabled

One of the things Google is doing to ensure that children’s privacy is protected is that in children’s accounts, we can’t use chat.

Indeed, the Gmail chat tool is not widely used today, so this is not usually a problem. But if you intended to use it with your children, you should look for an alternative for instant messaging, as this option will not be available to you.

No Advertising

Are you worried that your children will end up wanting to buy something after seeing ads in their emails? You’ll be reassured to know that Gmail for kids is ad-free.

Of course, Google doesn’t process Gmail messages in children’s accounts for advertising either. Although the company makes a living from everything it knows about us, it is especially careful with children’s accounts, so you don’t have to worry about where your child’s data will go. Potential advertisers can only access the information we adults leave behind.

Not Available Offline

If a device is not connected to the Internet, children will not be able to read, forward, or search their Gmail emails until they can access the network again.

The idea of this feature is that if we want to lend our children a mobile or tablet for example to play but we do not have access to the network we will not have to worry about if they send a message to someone that will be sent automatically as soon as they connect.

Do Not Receive Spam

If Google identifies an email as possible spam, that email will not even reach the child’s account, and not be able to find it even in a secondary folder.

This is a great advantage in principle, but we must take into account that if we are waiting to receive an email from a company or service that we have registered with, to avoid problems it is better to use an adult account.

You Can Not Delegate

Children cannot give someone else access to read, send or delete their e-mails. Only parents can do this, as mentioned above, via Family Link, but it will not be possible for anyone else to access the email.

The idea is that no third party can try to convince the little ones to let them access their email so that they have access to their privacy. The intention to protect them as much as possible is what justifies the existence of these accounts for children.