Email for Kids

Safe email for kids means different things to different parents. Here's a checklist of features to help you choose a solution. Following the checklist, is a list of vendors that offer email packages for kids.

[ ] Is only email from a white list of senders allowed to reach your child? For very young kids, this is a GREAT solution. Parents get to specify which email addresses are allowed to send email to their children. For school-aged kids however, I find the "white-list-only" solution to be cumbersome. My kids receive email from many friends, teachers, school administrators, soccer coaches, and team moms; I don't want to have to personally approve each sender. [ ] Can you create a white list of email addresses that OVERRIDES all other checks? This white list is a different implementation from the first. It is a list of senders that get through even if they violate one of the other rules. This is a good way to receive newsletters (for example) that may trip a spam filter for using phrases like "unsubscribe here" or "free." [ ] Is there a black list of email addresses that are not allowed to send mail to child? A useful feature, but if this is the only tool provided to block spam senders, you'll quickly tire of adding each new spam address to the black list. [ ] Does refused mail get sent to parent's email address? I never like products that delete mail without allowing a human being to review them. I am too leery of false positives to allow a machine to decide whether mail is important or not. [ ] Does product include virus scanning? A lot of junk mail is actually generated by viruses. If virus protection is not included in the email package, be sure to buy it separately. I like Norton Anti-Virus. [ ] Does product include spam control? Spam control is very important because not only will this filter unsolicited business offers, it will also catch all those offensive offers to enlarge various body parts. [ ] Does the spam check allow you to fix false positives? Be very wary of spam filters that throw the good mail out with the bad. Spam control needs to be configurable, and there must be a way to designate certain senders or certain subject lines as acceptable by placing them on a white list. Avoid spam control technologies that use only one criteria for determining spam (such as all instances of the word "free.") Better spam control will use a point system, so that some violations (mention of a certain male prescription drug, for example) are assigned more points than others. [ ] Does the product have profanity checks for both incoming and outgoing mail? This is a nice feature, but I would never accept a product that ONLY provided this feature (as some do.) [ ] Are ALL the parental control features password protected? This may seem obvious, but I've actually seen products that send the "bad mail" to a folder that is available for the children to read.

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Barbara J. Feldman is a syndicated columnist ("Surfing the Net with Kids") and author ("How to Add Games to Your Site.") She can be reached here.