Giving your kid an email address that isn't @gmail.com

At some point most kids need an email address — for a school sign-up, a game account, a library card, or just because they want one. The default answer is usually a free @gmail.com account set up in a hurry, with a username that's some combination of their name and a random number, made without much thought about who's actually watching what comes in.

A different starting point

If your family already has a surname domain, adding a child's address to it is a smaller, calmer step than setting up a brand-new standalone account. emma@wilsonmail.coreads the same as anyone else's address on the family domain — it doesn't look like a kid's account, and it doesn't require creating a new identity with a provider that has its own rules about what a child's account can and can't do.

Under the hood it's the same mechanism as every other alias: it's a forwarding address, not a new inbox. You choose where it forwards — a parent-managed inbox you already check, or a new one you set up and control the login for. Either way, nothing about setting up the alias itself hands a child an independent account you can't see into.

What this is — and isn't

• It's a real address a child can give out for school forms, hobby sign-ups, or a first game account, that forwards wherever a parent decides.
• It isn't a moderated or filtered mailbox — mail still needs to land somewhere a parent can actually see it, same as any other forwarding setup.
• It isn't a substitute for talking through the basics with your kid — what to click, what not to reply to, what to bring to you first.

Later, it's already theirs

The address doesn't need to be reissued as they get older — the same one that went on a Year 3 excursion form can keep being used through school, a first job application, and beyond, with the destination inbox changing hands as they're ready for that. It's one address for the long run, not something to replace in a few years.

If your family already has a surname domain, adding another handle to it is on the Family plan— up to five addresses under one subscription, so an extra address for a child doesn't mean an extra bill.