Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Friday

How do I create a new screen name in AOL?

I need to create a new screen name in AOL but am not sure how to do so. Can you help me out?

First off, let me say that I don't help kids try to circumvent protections that their parents have put in place: if you're a minor and want to foil the protections your folks have created, then you'd be much, much better off just talking with them and asking for permission. There's a reason that they're watching out for you...

Having said that, let's go through the process of creating a new screen name on AOL, because if you have a parental controls screen name, you won't be able to do this anyway, and if you don't, well, then you're legit.

Log in to America Online (AOL) as usual, then choose Account Settings --> Screen Name. (I'm using a Mac for these examples, but the Windows version is almost exactly the same. On the Mac, the Account Settings option is found on the "AOL" menu).

Now you'll see something like this...