My daughter is under 13 but wants a gmail account like her friends have. The age restriction is 13. I got her a yahoo account (OK for under 13 if the parent’s account is linked) but “gmail is so much better!”.
Also, last year her teacher recommended the students (all under 13) get gmail accounts to help with homework research, etc.
Unfortunately for my daughter, I’m a rule-stickler!
Unless Google has taken over the world without us noticing (always a possibility), then no one is breaking the law by signing up for gmail. They are breaking a rule that Google has set in place, no doubt, to cover their own corporate derriere.
My assumption is that there is a giant red lever deep below Google headquarters that will be flipped once they have sufficiently infiltrated every aspect of our lives.
Well, I believe the reasons for the restriction on those under the age of thirteen is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. It “applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children’s privacy and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those under 13.” Rather than dealing with that, a lot of websites simply prohibit anyone younger than thirteen from using their sites.
One approach the OP might take is for the parent to sign up for a Gmail account and let the child have access to it, or check it on behalf of the child.
You own the account and allow your daughter to send and receive mail using it. Link it to your personal alternate email account for management purposes, make sure you have full control over the account, and check to make sure she isn’t abusing it.
Like the one that Starbucks has? 
Google doesn’t seem to have a problem if it is a cute kid to pull at your heart strings…
So much for their golden futures! But you’d probably do the same thing if you were in their situation.
To be fair, OP, gmail IS far superior to Yahoo, especially for email accounts. Why would you go directly against the teacher’s own recommendation?
And what will you do if the teacher makes a gmail account a ‘rule’? How will you obey both rules? It’s like dropping a cat with a slice of buttered toast glued to it’s back.
I remember reading years ago (and in several places since) someone’s suggestion that perpetual motion could be achieved in this way, as the cat/buttered toast would spin forever to avoid hitting the ground!
Congratulations, you’re that parent who sends your kid to school with the gross health food muffins when all the other parents send yummy cupcakes!
Wait until you find out what she’s looking at on tumblr! :rolleyes:
Yeah, I think this is definitely one of those “pick your battles” situations. It’s an arbitrary rule, and among other things it’s good to teach your kids how The Real World works … and one of the primary aspects of that is how few things are black/white vs. how many are various shades of grey.
I think this is a good time for the OP to find out that “breaking Google’s TOS” is not in any possible way equivalent to “breaking the law”.
The point of my earlier post is that this is not an arbitrary rule; there is a law that specifies the company’s responsibility to those under thirteen, so they choose to just not allow children to participate.
I’m not sure that teaching your kids to mindlessly obey all rules is a good idea. At your daughter’s age, I think you should focus on teaching her the basis of ethics and morality, and allowing her to come to some conclusions about which rules we obey, and when, and why. Giving your children the ability to think for themselves is a huge part of parenting.