Texting, Voicemail, and a Phone Number for Life

As mentioned in the previous post, my ten-year-old son has had an account with Google since he was five years old. Over the years, he’s had little use for the account, but things are slowly changing. Now, more of his friends are also getting and using email accounts. But, I’m finding that email doesn’t mean to his generation what it did for ours. No, our ‘email’ is their 'texting'.

With that in mind, I walked him though setting up his very own Google Voice account. Google Voice has a very nifty feature in that it allows you to search for available phone numbers based on the area code of your choice as well as any alphanumeric string you choose. So, I was able to enter my son’s name into the search field and voila, we were able to select a phone number ending in his three-digit name! He was SO excited to have his OWN phone number for the first time in his life! Not only that, but the few of his friends who have their own phones are now able to text his Google Voice number, which he receives as emails. If anyone calls his Google Voice number, our home phone rings. He’s also able to make and receive phone calls right from his gmail account.

Most importantly, he now has a phone number for life! Once he gets his very own phone, he’ll be able to make and receive calls with his Google Voice number. But that, as they say, I’ll save for another post…

From the Most Humble Beginnings

Nearly six years ago, my wife and I decided to create email accounts for my then five-year-old son and two-month-old daughter. Since my wife and I had been using Google's gmail for several years at that point, we set them up with their own gmail accounts. Now we understood then and now that at 5 years old and 2 months old they would have very little need for their own email accounts, but we figured they would need them eventually and wanted to grab their preferred usernames if available.

Now, at 10 years old, my son is starting to actually use his gmail address. Just recently during a family vacation on Disney Cruise Line (my other passion), he exchanged addresses with a few new friends he made during the trip. He also uses the address to create accounts on online sites that interest him. He also often corresponds with his grandmother who lives in Tennessee.

Now, there are a few concerns with providing a ten-year-old with his own email address. So, I created a filter that forwards all incoming messages to me. This serves two purposes. One, I can keep an eye on his online (email, accounts) activity to ensure that he isn't doing anything dangerous. And two, I can let him know when he receives messages. So far, this system works out well.