Safe Emailing for kids at last !!

A while back now I joined in a conversation regarding Facebook, do we or don't we allow our children to use it and if we do, the most effective ways of protecting them that we have tried as parents.

My thoughts have now turned to emails, we all know the dangers out there in the big bad world and unfortunately we have to find ways to protect our children from them.  You hear so many horror stories yet if your like me you don't want to seem over protective but inside you want to wrap them up in cotton wool.

Luckily someone else also had the very same concerns and has developed a safe email package for children to use, I've tried it out and like it.  The children feel all grown up that they can send and receive emails and I feel more relaxed knowing that I have complete control over their account and safety.

What I liked was it's simplicity to register, very quick and easy !  Its called KidsEmail.org and they currently have a 30 day free trial so you can test it out for yourself, with a major plus point in my mind that you don't have to input your credit card details, unlike so many other companies out there.

Not only that, I loved the fact that you could choose between setting their account up for a younger or older child, with the older account having the option for their email address to end in @kmail.org instead of @kidsemail.org, perfect!   Older children have their image to think about after all, I've got two of them so I know how important in life that is (or isn't as the case maybe!!).

You have other great safety options as well, I chose to have a copy of their incoming or outgoing emails sent to me, to filter out bad words in emails they receive and to only send and receive emails from those in their contact lists.  There are quite a few good security options for you to choose from which just shows how well thought out it has been.

I had to laugh when I saw the additional tasks you could do as one of them is headed 'ground child', as parents we know how important this is :-)  You can also restrict the time they spend on the account and block unwanted email senders.

The eldest chose the ipad theme,
substitute for the real thing !!

The youngest choice of theme,
would probably be mine too !!

Now came the fun part, getting the kids to choose their account theme!!!  When they we're both happy with their choices it was time to send each other crazy emails, including sending their mam one, of course I just had to send a reply.