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Set up your teen's first real accounts properly
Why it matters: A teen's first email becomes the reset key for the rest of their life online. Starting it with good habits is far easier than fixing it later.
On your path if you picked “Teenagers” for “Who's at home?”.
Best after: Put one password manager in charge
Do it
- Give your teen a seat in the family password manager.
- Add a passkey to their email and main accounts, with a parent's phone or email as recovery for now.
- Teach the code rule: never share a sign-in code, even with a friend or someone claiming to be a game's support team.
- Show them how to check signed-in devices and sign out of ones they don't recognize.
- Plan to hand over recovery to them when they're ready.
Check it worked: Your teen's email and main accounts use the family password manager and passkeys, recovery goes to a parent, and they know the safe word and the code rule.
Simply put
A teen's first email is like the foundation of a house they'll live in for decades. Starting it with a password manager, a passkey and a parent as recovery is far easier than fixing it later.
In detail
Game accounts and in-game items are a common first target for scams aimed at teens, and code-sharing scams start there. Habits formed on these accounts carry over to banking later.
Points toward the Long View: an adult online life that starts with good habits already built in.