Email is any method of exchanging computer stored messages. Usually emails represent text-based human communications that are being transmitted with digital communications systems.
Risks:
- It is easy to create a free email account (for example Google email, Yahoo email). The child may have an email that his/her parents are completely unaware of in order to hide different activities from them.
- Make sure that your child does not have an email that can be penetrated easily, like email accounts with weak passwords or emails with names similiar to the child's webpage name. These emails can be targeted by strangers that will take control over the email address for different purposes. It can also be a target for child predators or be a target for harassments such as spam emails.
- The child can join online mailing lists in order to get pornographic materials.
- The child may be tempted to give his/her email address in websites that seem legitimate, but actually run scams or ploys and intend to use the email address later on for illegal activities or "just" for sending spam emails. It is important to make sure that the child does not give away his/her email address without adult supervision.