How to set up an email account for your child
Updated 30 October 2026 · 7 min read
Sooner or later school, a football club or a grandparent will ask for your child's email address. This guide shows you how to give your child their own address in Ayamail, how you decide who may write to them, and what you can and cannot see as a parent. You will need about ten minutes and the device your child is going to use.
Before you start
In Ayamail you can have your own account from the age of 15. Children under 15 get a child account instead. A parent creates it and manages it from the Family Center, and the child never gets access to the control panel, billing or anyone else's account.
Child accounts are part of the Family plan. It has room for 6 adults and 4 children, who share 2 TB of storage. If you are on the free plan with 3 GB, or on Plus, Unlimited or Duo, you can upgrade at any time. Prices depend on your country, so check the pricing page for what it costs where you live.
Have a few things ready: a name for the account, an address idea your child is happy with, and a password of at least 12 characters with both letters and numbers. Avoid putting your child's full name or year of birth in the address. Something like a nickname plus a word they like works well and gives away less.
Step by step: create the child account
You do all of this from your own account. Your child does not need to be at the screen until step 6.
1. Open the Family Center
Sign in at ayamail.net and open the control panel. Choose Family Center. Here you see the adults and children in the family and how much storage each one uses.
2. Create a child account
Choose to create a new account and tick that it is a child account. Enter a name, pick the username and choose one of our domains, for example ayamail.net or ayamail.co.uk.
3. Choose a password
Type a password or let us create one. It must be at least 12 characters with both letters and numbers, and we reject passwords that are known from data leaks. We do not store the password in readable form, so write it down for your child.
4. Check the safety settings
Open Safety for the new account. The setting “Only receive mail from approved senders” is on from the start. Mail from anyone else does not reach your child. It is passed on to you instead, so you can read it and decide whether to approve the sender.
5. Add approved senders
Add the people and places your child should hear from: grandparents, the class teacher, the club. You can approve a full address (name@school.org) or a whole domain (school.org). The family's own addresses are always approved.
6. Sign in on your child's device
Open ayamail.net in the browser on your child's phone, tablet or computer and sign in with the new address and password. On a phone you can add the page to the home screen so it opens like an app. The account also works in mail programs such as Apple Mail or Outlook over IMAP and SMTP.
7. Send a first message together
Send a short test mail from your own address to your child's, and one back. It shows that everything works and is a good moment to talk about what to do with a message that feels odd.
Child accounts are part of Ayamail Family
6 adults and 4 children, 2 TB shared, with mail, calendar, contacts, drive, album and passwords.
What your child can and cannot do
A child account has webmail and the apps: mail, calendar, contacts, drive, album, passwords and documents. Your child can write to approved senders, organise mail in folders and keep their own files.
A child cannot change the plan, see billing, open the control panel or change anyone else in the family. You stay in charge. You can rename the account, set a new password, pause it so it cannot sign in to any of the apps, and delete it. Deleting removes all mail, contacts and files on the account for good, so think twice before you do it.
What you see as a parent, and what you do not
It is worth being clear about this with your child. While approved senders only is on, you receive the mail from unknown senders, because it goes to you instead of to your child. Mail from approved senders goes straight to your child, and you do not get a copy of it.
If you turn approved senders only off, your child receives all mail. You can then choose to get a copy of mail from senders who are not on the list. That suits older children who need more freedom while you keep an eye on new contacts.
The Family Center has no function for reading your child's mailbox. We think it is better to decide who may write than to read along afterwards, and it gives your child a fair amount of privacy within clear limits.
How the mail is protected
Your child's mail is protected with an encrypted connection (TLS) to and from our servers, and we require encrypted delivery from other mail servers. Mail is stored on our own servers at Hetzner in Germany. Without PGP, it is not end-to-end encrypted. If you want to send a message that only the recipient can read, you can turn on PGP or send a password-protected message.
Files, photos, passwords and documents in Drive, Album, Pass and Docs are encrypted on the device before they are stored, and we cannot read them. Calendar and contacts can be encrypted.
Approval is based on the sender address in the email. Our spam filter rejects many forged senders, but not all of them. Teach your child never to send passwords or personal details by mail, even when the sender looks familiar.
Good habits for the first months
- Go through the list of approved senders together once a month.
- Agree that your child tells you about mail that is scary, rude or asks for secrets.
- Keep the password somewhere safe, and change it if a friend has seen it.
- Let your child decide on the address. A name they like is a name they will look after.
- Explain that links and attachments from strangers should not be opened.
- Use the shared family calendar for school dates and clubs, so mail is not the only channel.
When your child turns 15
From 15, your child may have their own account. Within the family, adults are added by invitation: you send a link, and the person chooses their own address and password. As account owner you still manage the family's accounts, so agree together how you want to handle the change.
Not sure if your child is old enough?
Read what the rules say about children and email, and how parental consent works.
Start with a free plan
Try Ayamail free with 3 GB, and upgrade to Family when you want child accounts. Prices for your country are on the pricing page.
Questions and answers
- How old does my child have to be to get an email account?
- In Ayamail you can have your own account from 15. Younger children get a child account that a parent creates and manages in the Family Center on the Family plan.
- Can I read my child's email?
- Not from the Family Center. While approved senders only is on, mail from unknown senders comes to you instead. You can also choose a copy of mail from new senders. Mail from approved senders goes only to your child.
- How many child accounts can I create?
- The Family plan has room for 4 children and 6 adults, with 2 TB of storage shared between everyone.
- Does my child need a phone number?
- No. You create the account with a name, an address and a password. Your child signs in with the address and password.
- What happens if my child forgets the password?
- You set a new one in the Family Center. The old password stops working, and your child signs in with the new one.
Sources
- Ayamail Family Center: child accounts and approved senders (Checked 30 October 2026)
- Ayamail pricing and plans (Checked 30 October 2026)