I will work with the child to acquire a domain name, and email address of their choice. While they are in my care, I will host their domain on my account, but they will be responsible for paying the registrar fee, and any hosting option if they are no longer in my custody. This will allow the child to be creative, and express themselves in a platform that will allow them to prosper. I will work with the child to build trust with me, so they can bring any inappropriate emails to me.
I probably could have provided the child with a website, and email within my network of domains, but I wanted to offer something that is permanent for that child. If they left my custody, they would have lost the email address, and website I would have lent to them. This would mean they will have to start over. By having something that is theirs assures that they don’t lose such resources as long as they are willing to pay the registrar and hosting fees. While in my custody, I will not bill them for hosting. They will still be responsible for the registrar fees. This will be a good way to teach them about budgeting and long term purchases. It will also teach them about annual bills, and how to deal with them.
The child can choose to not have their own domain. If that was to happen, they will be able to acquire a free email account with Gmail. Gmail also offers the ability to use their computer’s email client to download the email. This free option does not guarantee any website options, and unfortunately free websites are hard to come by. Still, everyone should have an email address that is theirs. A Gmail account will be recommended in addition to the domain. If there was an issue with the domain, then there will still be communications available through Gmail to resolve the problem.
If the child leaves my custody, I will remove their domain in 30 days after they leave. It will be up to them to acquire a new hosting plan, and they will use their debit card to pay for the hosting solution. After they acquire the solution, they will then need to change their DNS settings. This is one reason why they will have their account for the domain registry.