Parents already juggle long checklists before a baby arrives—crib, clothes, car seat—but there’s a surprising new item some are adding: reserving their child’s email address before they’re even born.
A new offering from Proton, which is a company based out of Switzerland, lets parents lock in an email address for their child and keep it completely sealed for up to 15 years. That means no inbox, no activity, no tracking, and no risk of the account filling up with spam or being deleted for inactivity.
The idea is simple: Parents choose an email address now, and instead of activating it right away, Proton holds it securely. When the child is older—typically as a teenager—they can use a voucher provided at signup to activate the account and start fresh.
While parents could technically create an account through services like Google or Microsoft, those accounts can accumulate junk mail over time, be subject to tracking, or even be removed if left unused for too long.
Proton’s approach focuses heavily on privacy, using end-to-end encryption and a “zero-access” system designed to keep user data completely private.
There’s also a minimal cost involved: Parents are asked to make a $1 donation, which the company says helps cover the service and prevent abuse of the system.
With the digital age we live in today, kids need an email earlier than ever between school apps, games, and messaging tools which all ask for an email address long before a child understands what privacy is or how their data may be misused.
It may sound unusual, but as more of life moves online, some parents see it as a way to give their kids a clean, secure digital start—long before they ever send their first email.
So, would you add reserving an email to your new baby to-do list?
