PADI says 10yrs old is the minimum for Junior open water certification, but dive companies then have to abide my the local/state/national laws regarding minimum age limits. In Australia it is 12yrs old. Believe not the same around the world though, i teach SCUBA diving at a school and we get students all the time that have junior open water tickets they got when they were 10yrs old over in Bali or Thailand and other exotic dive destinations around the world, i have even had one student that was certified at 8yrs old!. But our school policy is they get a try dive at 13yrs then can do open water at 14yrs.

Interesting read as to why the age limit has been set at 12yrs old in Australia. Alot of it is to do with bureacracy and legalities, but a big part is also to do with a childs ability to make decisions in stressful situations, and also how diving can effect growth and development of a child, especially to do with bone growth. Also unles they have a kids size BCD and small air tank alot of smaller kids probably wouldnt even be able to move around on their own on land with all theri kit. Personally people can do whatever they want with their own gear and their own kids but after doing this for 4 years and having seen over 250 students around the early teens get certified i wouldnt be wanting my kids to be doing it at a younger age( that is when me and the other half have kids some day).

Actually did my DAN oxygen refresher course last Monday, not a bad course, get to find out all the statistics for Australia and International diving and diving related incidents.

When I first learned to dive in a small country town, my son was not quite 11. I was fortunate to have my best friends be the owners/operators of the local dive shop. However, as a single Mum, I then had the dilemma of what to do with my boy while I was out diving... leaving him behind wasn't an option... so we taught him to dive. He was put through a full dive course, so he knew what he needed to know, but wasn't certified until he was 12 (as a junior diver) - by a friendly NAUI instructor friend. He had around 40 dives logged by then. His ticket was then upgraded to an open water (adult) qualification when he was 14.

I went on to become an instructor myself in 1989, but during the 10 years that I taught diving, I only ever had 2 or 3 kids under 15 that wanted to learn.

I think the major factors are 1) the child is physically capable of handling their own gear  2) they have enthusiasm for the sport 3) are mentally mature enough to take in the theory and understand that there can be serious consequences to not doing it right.

Without any one of the above 3 factors, I would have to say come back when you're grown up... I would hate to see parents push an unwilling youngster in to do something that they didn't really want to do. (Yes, I have seen it!) Recipe for disaster in my opinion.

for me some basic rules are:

1, the kid must weigh more than 30kg at least, to be able to control buoyancy and not be dragged down by equipment weight, also be physically strong enough to get in and out of their gear alone.

2, I agree 12 is a good start for shallow dives, snorkeling and hookah dives only. Max depth should be no more than 8m at that age.

3, once they over 13 and have a number of dives under the belt, they will have experience to judge depths and abilities, it's so easy for a young diver to creep down to 25m without knowing on a drop off reef and then forgetting about deco times.

I learnt to dive at 13 and was diving to 20m by 15, I grew up with father who was a navy diver and so had more exposure to diving than most kids my age, so it was natural progression for me.

JMO