  Experimentally it has been known for a long time that the electric charges of
the observed particles appear to be quantized. An approach to understanding
electric charge quantization that can be used for gauge theories with explicit
$U(1)$ factors -- such as the standard model and its variants -- is
pedagogically reviewed and discussed in this article. This approach uses the
allowed invariances of the Lagrangian and their associated anomaly cancellation
equations. We demonstrate that charge may be de-quantized in the
three-generation standard model with massless neutrinos, because differences in
family-lepton--numbers are anomaly-free. We also review the relevant
experimental limits. Our approach to charge quantization suggests that the
minimal standard model should be extended so that family-lepton--number
differences are explicitly broken. We briefly discuss some candidate extensions
(e.g. the minimal standard model augmented by Majorana right-handed neutrinos).
