Free and secure email server for kids?

[mom2minniemouse]

Does one exist? LOL! I've been Googling and am only finding really good sounding ones that charge an annual or monthly fee.

Tia!

 

[Lisa_M]

I would say gmail.com It's not for kids, but it's free, secure and you won't get any spam unless you give out your email to companies.

I do think that even if you found one for kids, it's use needs to be monitored by you regularly. Kids are VERY liberal with giving out personal information online (I know this because I moderate chat rooms). They will give out school names, phone numbers, town or city names, and emails at the blink of an eye and then the aim, yahoo, msn, Myspace, piczo, xanga stuff is a whole other ball of worms...

I think the safest email would be to have a family account that you can access for your child and he/she can read them with you sitting there and send to friends with you sitting there.

 

[mom2minniemouse]

Thanks for the input, Lisa!

We decided to go with www.zoobuh.com. It's free for 30 days and just $1/month/child thereafter. It has all the swanky parental controls I was hoping for. For example, I have set it to have every incoming and sent email to go to my parental account for approval first. Not 100% free,but well worth the $1/month, IMO. DD is really excited! She has a friend who is homeschooled and another friend who is moving several states away this summer. It's great she will be able to keep in touch!

 

[tink2dw]

Watch out for what type of IM'ing they do too. Yahoo anyone can join a chat While on the Hotmail one it is just you and the person you IM-ed which is much safer!! And Hotmail is free.

 

[IDoDis]

You should be able to set up parental controls with your existing internet provider at no extra charge. DD's email has to be approved by us before she gets them. Also, you can view all of the web sites they visit and block ones that are not for their age-group.

 

[kathi29]

How old is your DD? My 8 year old didn't care for the Zoobuh interface at all.

We ended up using our regular email provider for her account, with a spam filter added. And I check her emails online before she downloads them.

 

[formernyer]

i would go with gmail

kids like to send emails with large attachments to their friends (funny videos they find, etc.)

gmail allows them to send and receive emails with huge attachments. it's free and spam controls are great