How to handle porn spam that occur in a child's email account?

[Papa Deuce]

My daughters both want email accounts, at age six. I'm torn as to whether they should have them with all the porn emails... I know that they only want to send emails to friends and family, but I don't want them getting porn email.

How would you handle it?

I know that it will happen sooner or later, but for now, I want them to keep their innocence..

 

[Forevryoung]

Actually, I've had amazing luck with GMail's spam blocker (unlike Yahoo or AOL)... I never go into my spam mailbox and I almost never get spam in my regular inbox and I get many many emails a day. Every so often I blindly delete my spambox and all is good.

Look into it- you could always get them an email account but have you or your wife open it first to delete the spam.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Actually, I've had amazing luck with GMail's spam blocker (unlike Yahoo or AOL)... I never go into my spam mailbox and I almost never get spam in my regular inbox and I get many many emails a day. Every so often I blindly delete my spambox and all is good.

Look into it- you could always get them an email account but have you or your wife open it first to delete the spam.

That is true, all my spam in Gmail is properly sent to my spam box - well 99% of the time. One does occasionally get through, though.

 

[Forevryoung]

That is true, all my spam in Gmail is properly sent to my spam box - well 99% of the time. One does occasionally get through, though.

I doubt you will do better than 99% of the time for anything

It becomes if you are willing to take that 1% chance...

I think on GMail you can set it up so only the addresses you specify are sent into the inbox- that might be a better method of control

 

[yeartolate]

We have AOL and my son has had an account for years. No porn. I just block all the appropriate stuff and say exactly who can send him email.

 

[DisMN]

I don't know why it works but when we set up our granddaughters email on Yahoo, we had to give her age. Being honest about it we gave her real age and at the time she was just 7. She has had ZeRO... absolutely NO spam, porn spam or otherwise. Like I said I have no idea why yahoo is able to keep spam totally out of a childs email account but they do.

 

[flipturngirl]

I don't know why it works but when we set up our granddaughters email on Yahoo, we had to give her age. Being honest about it we gave her real age and at the time she was just 7. She has had ZeRO... absolutely NO spam, porn spam or otherwise. Like I said I have no idea why yahoo is able to keep spam totally out of a childs email account but they do.

I have not had to deal with porn spam.. but other spam yes.. on my gmail account i have not really got any spam at all. good luck

 

[ToasterWaffle]

Get each child two accounts. One is for personal email with family and friends exclusively and the other use for registering on websites for game playing or what have you.

At this point they don't even need to see the secondary accounts and you can keep vast amounts of junk mail out of the personal accounts cutting way down on what you have to filter.

As long as you never use the personal accounts for anything on the web and your friends and family don't have their email address books hijacked, you ought to be able to keep the personal accounts free of most if not all porn.

 

[Snow_White]

You could get the child the email account, but only allow them to view the emails after you have prescreened the inbox. You don't need to give them the password to the account. At that age, I wouldn't let my child use the computer unsupervised anyway, so I don't see this as any huge privacy invasion

 

[Papa Deuce]

I think on GMail you can set it up so only the addresses you specify are sent into the inbox- that might be a better method of control

I didn't know I could do that. Thanks!

 

[Papa Deuce]

You could get the child the email account, but only allow them to view the emails after you have prescreened the inbox. You don't need to give them the password to the account. At that age, I wouldn't let my child use the computer unsupervised anyway, so I don't see this as any huge privacy invasion

That's for sure! Our computer is in plain site of the kitchen.

 

[Girldreamer02]

Actually, I've had amazing luck with GMail's spam blocker (unlike Yahoo or AOL)... I never go into my spam mailbox and I almost never get spam in my regular inbox and I get many many emails a day. Every so often I blindly delete my spambox and all is good.

Look into it- you could always get them an email account but have you or your wife open it first to delete the spam.

I agree...I have been using gmail for almost three yrs and my spam always goes to the spam folder although once in a while someones email will get tossed in there by accident...i don't know why...i think its a gmail hicup so make sure you just scroll through them real fast before you delete the spam. Like I said its only once in a great while hope this helps

 

[disneydude91]

Why do you need an e-mail account at six years old? I didn't get my e-mail account until I was eleven or twelve.

 

[Girldreamer02]

Why do you need an e-mail account at six years old? I didn't get my e-mail account until I was eleven or twelve.

i was wondering the same thing lol i didn't get mine until i was about 15 or 16 we were late on the whole internet thing in my household hehe

 

[aprilgail2]

Why do you need an e-mail account at six years old? I didn't get my e-mail account until I was eleven or twelve.

My daughter got hers at 6 to. She emails back and forth with her cousins and half sister. I got her an AOL one and put in the addresses of just the people that are allowed to email her. She gets NO mail other than those I approve who can send her mail. It works great, no spam, no porn and IM's are blocked the same way.

 

[TJ's Mom]

I just let my daughter use my email account. I see what she sends and see what she gets. I am the perfect spam blocker for her!

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Both of DDs E-mail accounts are set to exclusive ( MSN and Verizon).

She uses the Verizon for signups and the Msn for personal to family and friends.

I have to do the approvals for her address book through MSN parental controls.

She has had hers since around that 6 or 7 year old timeframe as well. She got AIM at about 10 and MySpace at 13. I have controll of all of them and she knows it (well not the AIM Her friends think they are slick with that one).

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have never had porn spam and neither have my kids.
At 6 I would monitor them and begin teaching them computer rules.

My youngest is 10 and very savvy now...It blows me away.
Literally....she has surpassed me!

 

[Freyja]

I love my Gmail. I have never had a porn spam get through into my in-box. I highly recommend it.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Why do you need an e-mail account at six years old? I didn't get my e-mail account until I was eleven or twelve.

Why NOT have one to share with family and friends?