So I posted not too long ago about my son who will soon be going to the Manchester NH mission. I recently heard that the LDS church only allows missionaries to use MyLDSMail to send and receive messages. Also heard that the missionary accounts are monitored by the church, or rather, the local mission.
So here's my concern: what rights do I have when it comes to corresponding with my son?

Unlike him, I signed no paperwork, made no contractual agreement with the Mormon church about mission rules, including this one. I don't consent to having my personal, private correspondence monitored or potentially even censored by the LDS church.
What if I refuse to use their email, will my son still be "allowed" to correspond with me?
Or if I'm forced to use it in order to communicate with my son, what recourse do I have if I find that my communication has been tampered with or censored?

This is all new territory, and frankly, more than a little disturbing. I've been trying to read through email privacy information online, but it's mostly about privacy vs. employers or government entities; no precedent that I can see for an entity like the LDS church, plus there's so much 'legalese' that I got bogged down pretty quickly trying to make my through it.

If anyone has any knowledge or experience on this one, I'd be really interested in hearing it.

Following to learn more as well. This is a very interesting and important topic.

While the difference between rights and powers is fun to discuss, the only question that is meaningful is who has more power with your son, you or the church?

If you refuse to 'heed' the word of the lord as given to you by the MP or your SP, or whomever, and you tell your son to call you any time he wants to, it's then up to your son on what he does.

I can't remember if I pimped this when you first posted about your son's call: http://www.postmormon.org/exp_e/index.php/discussions/viewthread/18763/

It's pages and pages of stories by RMs about the naughty things they did. There are the occasional paeans by RMs who DID not succumb to innocent, benign temptations because of their desire to remain true to the calling, and how they now regret it.

If your son wants to bleed mormon blue, and remain true to the calling, doesn't matter what your rights and powers are. If he follows procedure and hides the bad things that happen, you won't know about them until he gets home.

We don't know how much you can encourage him and not make him uncomfortable; that's your call. Missionaries are now apparently supposed to feel sanctified by the shortages they suffer. I think that's BS and I'd send your boy a pre-loaded visa card in the mail (to his apartment, not to the mission home) and then text or email the PIN. I'd also ship him out a cheap prepaid cell phone and tell him to use it in emergencies.

Once he makes senior companion, and gets a 'cool' companion, that's when you can finally start enjoying your mission.

But it's all going to boil down to how much you son feels good about getting away with.

I wonder the same things. When my youngest son was on his mission, he always gave me his local address and I sent him snail mail letters every week. He appreciated them so much because they were actual newsy things that were happening in the family, etc.

Now, I have a grandson who just returned from his mission and I was Never allowed to have his real address. Anything I wanted to send him had go to the mission home address. I hope those letters and packages were not opened, but who knows?

Get him a small smart phone. Then get one of those small solar cell phone chargers. You can get them encased in cloth which you can attached to his backpack where it just looks like a pocket. This way he want have to plug up and be seen / questioned. Turn the ringer and vibration off at all time. Also turn off the button sound. He can view it and text under the cover of his bed at night or take to the bathroom with him.

But this is all up to him. If there is a will, there is a way.

Smart Watch?

THEIR IS NO,0,NONE, PRIVACY IN A THEOLOGICAL CULT

When you have a non-snitch companion, life can be good. I'm sure that most of us got away with stuff we weren't supposed to...

Your son can chose to look at e-mails from his private account or give you his real address if he wants to.
If he chooses only to use the LDS email and only recieve mail that passes through the mission home then he is agreeing to have his mail and email monitored. It's not about the senders privacy once it is sent. The receiver is giving consent for things to be searched before he looks at it.
It's a cult, but he can still find ways to bend/break the rules. But he has to decide to do it.

Give him a prepaid cell phone, a return ticket home, and an emergency pre-loaded credit card. Give him the tools so he can truely make his own decisions and then all you can do is wait and let him decide. Love him and support him no matter what that decision is.