Also, most of the postcrossers choose child friendly postcards, if they read that they write to a child 
I like that every age participate. My youngest postcrosser was 6 years old and my oldest 98 
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My daughter is 19 months old now and I opened an account for her when she was 6 months old (shortly after I started Postcrossing myself). It is stated in her profile that her mom (me) writes her postcards for her as she can’t do it herself yet.
We have made - without exception - positive experiences and gotten a lot of lovely postcards and messages.
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Nice!
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I love it when I pull a child’s address! Kids know what they like! And it is fun to share my country with them
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@anon25441763 I changed the headline and the category of your Topic, because your question has been answered and there are now reports about children’s accounts.
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I created an account for my nephew years ago and share admin duties with his mom. She buys his cards; I draw names & mail them; she registers them; and he has all the fun! Only 1 time did he get an inappropriate card of naked girls on a beach but mom tossed before he got to see. We adjust his profile as his interests and activities change and it’s been great fun for everyone
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Hi all
Need some advice please, apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere, in which case point me in the right direction…
I’ve been Postcrossing nearly 2 months now and completely love it, I’m hooked!
My son who is 9 has also shown an interest in what I am sending and receiving, and in particular stamps and has started scrapbooking bits and bobs… I am particularly pleased about this, not least because he is from a generation to whom handwritten correspondence seems increasingly alien, so I encourage it wholly.
He’s expressed an interest in sending and receiving cards so I wanted to know if any other users had experience of registering their kids for postcrossing? Is there a special kids profile that can be registered? I am obviously concerned about him receiving cards with inappropriate subject matter (e.g. nudity) and potentially offensive comments, though knowing the community as I have come to know I am less concerned about the latter than the former.
Does anyone have any insight they can share? Keen for him to get involved, but obviously in a safe and appropriate way…
Thanks in advance.
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Welcome to PC!
You might try having him join PC to get on the Forum and just do the Forum for a while, rather than the wide world of exchanges? People here are so nice… and perhaps slightly more accountable (?) to each other… and there are also so many fun lotteries and RRs and swaps and things - all of which can be more gratifying than the seemingly interminable wait to get reasonable numbers of PC postcards flowing at the beginning.
Alternatively, you could have people send/receive with him on mainstream PC, but have the address in his profile come to your attention in the mail, and make sure he agrees that you will read everything first (and note that in his profile, even if it’s embarassing!).
Am wishing you luck - I’m sure I will be running into the same issue in a few years so please report back how it goes!
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I’ve received over 1,000 cards. Not one has been offensive, or rude.
I’ve seen many children profiles, that note they are “monitored by parent”
Could always participate in both, the main site for the thrill of randomness, and visit the forum for Swaps section of ‘stamps’ and ‘other’ for scrapbooking fodder 
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You could allow him to make his own profile but have the cards come ‘in care of’ you, and you could preview them before giving them to him to weed out any potential problems in subject matter or message.
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I really don’t have that much experience with getting/receiving cards from kids. I think maybe two received cards from young ones; both cards were nice. But as others have noted, you need to exercise care with how much information you make publicly available. That’s why @jaenelle’s suggestion is a very good one.
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My daughter has been Postcrossing with her own account for just over 2 years now (starting at age 7 years). She hasn’t had any issues with anyone sending anything inappropriate. She has seen some postcards with nudity on other people’s walls (for example, when looking at favorites walls to help her choose a card to send) but I’m nearby whenever she’s logged on so we just have a conversation about those images and anything else she might have questions about. Those instances have been rare and there has not been anything truly concerning!
We keep her settings on international exchanges only (she does not send within our country) and she does not do direct swaps. Her profile states that she is a primary school student and she mentions “My mom helps me with Postcrossing” so people will know that there is an adult monitoring things for content and also to make sure cards are sent and that received cards are registered promptly. She loves it and does a good job!
I have told her she needs to wait until she is a little older to join the forum as it is really a form of social media and I don’t think she needs that just yet 
Through my activity on the forum she has gained an international pen pal and corresponded with a couple other kids (those exchanges set up by the parents for the kids).
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Let me add what the community guidelines say about kids participating:
You’re older than 13, or have permission.
If you are under 13 years old, you must use the website under the supervision of an adult and with due consent from your parent or legal guardian. We believe children can learn a great deal with Postcrossing, but like with any other website, their online habits should be monitored closely by an adult.
That’s why the profile should state that he’s helped by his mum who’s also a Postcrosser. This makes senders (and receivers) feel better because they know that the cards (and personal data) will be handled properly.
I’ve written postcards to a lot of children on this website. If the profile is clear about how old your son is, I’m sure he will get appropriate mail.
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I think kids do well with official accounts that are monitored by parents but I’d keep him away from the Forum til he’s older given the wide range of subjects discussed usually at an adult level & of content sometimes that could be disturbing (war, sexuality, politics etc) to kids.
With official profiles you can clearly show they are for a child but on the Forum that is a lot less clear given that people get into discussions/games often without looking up someone’s profile.
I’ve had several experiences on here where I’ve seen children under 13 in the Forum for hours & hours, clearly not actively supervised by an adult & involved in discussions & games that would not meet with approval from most parents for kids of that age.
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I don’t have children myself but there are countless children profiles on postcrossing. They usually make it clear that the profile belongs to a child (maybe I would avoid putting a full date of birth though) and ask for appropriate cards/no nudity etc.
It’s probably not 100% foolproof because some people might not read the full thing or be distracted or don’t speak a lot of English but they can usually handle the situation with online translators. It would be a rare unlucky case to receive something totally wrong for a child, but in that case it’s of course important for the parents to be nearby and help make sense of the situation.
I’d also agree that the official site is probably easier to monitor for a parent than the forum. And in the official site, the admins can help while the forum is less regulated in terms of swaps etc. (It’s just impossible to keep track of everything I believe, and it states somewhere that swaps on here are your responsibility). Perhaps you can browse it together if he is looking for something specific e.g. swapping with another child or looking for cartoon characters or whatever.
It’s exciting and it must be mind-blowing for a child nowadays to enter this world
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@elikoa is spot on with this suggestion. We don’t have my daughter’s birthday anywhere on her profile. A couple other things I thought of after my previous post are:
For her address I have her first name and last initial only (not full last name). That works in the US, not sure if other countries have different rules about what is required in order for mail to be delivered. And her profile picture has never shown her whole face - at first her picture was a drawing she had done, then we changed it to a picture where she was wearing a mask 
and now her picture has a book covering the lower half of her face. Also, I have it set so her profile page is visible Only to members (under Settings → Profile) to try and reduce the number of people with access to her profile.
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the post from @SilverHare practically describes my profile - no date of birth, no full name but only the initial of my survey, no picture of me, only visible to members. So I guess that goes for adults too but of course adults can make their own choices and arguably have more ways to cope when things happen.
The original poster is from the UK and when I lived in the UK I had my first name + initial only. It worked. In my native country that wouldn’t work because we usually have surnames on the postboxes instead of apartment numbers so your surname is the only way the post workers have to locate you, unless you live in a single house. Countless times people are so confused when there is no full name but it really doesn’t make a difference at all in some countries.
I’m sure German postcrossers have mentioned that legally in Germany you have to use your full name so I don’t know if I’m breaking any laws in other countries, but post was/is delivered to me for sure.
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My daughter is participating too since this month.
We do not state her exact age.
We have to use her last name, or she won’t be able to receive cards, but we’ve been a bit creative with the first name.
I help her write her cards and as I always empty our mailbox, I get to see all cards first. As she doesn’t have an e-mail-account, the hurray-messages are going to one of mine. So I can see everything first and when I translate a profile for her, I might skip some sentences which I do not find suitable for a girl in primary school.
I wouldn’t let her use the forum, I don’t think a forum is suitable for children.
So far she really enjoys postcrossing and is very happy when one of her cards arrives or she receives one and she really puts a lot of effort into every card. She only speaks very little English so I translate the sentences she wants to write and she copies them. This works well for us and she might even learn something without even noticing it.
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