This is one I am a bit worried about.

If I were to open something like a gmail account for my kids just to contact their friends, it's highly likely they would start getting spammed with sex, hate, etc type mails.

Is there any way out there to let kids have their own mail without the dangers of the spam?

I am wondering if there is any software so that you can only allow certain emails (like from approved addresses) to reach their mailboxes. And you can do a SPAm filter although things sometimes still get through.

One option would be to create and manage an email "Whitelist" for your child's email account. If set up properly, a whitelist would allow only email messages from approved addresses to be delivered to your child's email address. This wouldn't help with spoofed addresses, but it would certainly cut down on the random junk and the potential porn spam.

A lot depends on the age of the child in question. Right now, my daughter is way too young for this to be a concern. On the other hand, my niece is old enough that my sister and her husband are maintaining a sort of blog for her and have an email account for her to correspond with her grandparents and her mom. Right now, they run her email for her before she sits down at the computer and have a chance to quickly scan for inappropriate messages (empty the spam folder, etc) before she sits down at the computer.

Once kids are a bit older, my niece is 9, they are usually savvy enough to open their own account on something like hotmail and it's a lot harder to monitor their usage. At that point, it seems better to me to keep open lines of dialog.

I beleive that Gmail is pretty safe. I have ahad my account for a couple of years now and have yet to receive and questionable e-mails. I think the most important thing would be to make sure your child doesn't display their e-mail anywhere online where the spammers can get a hold of it. Which is much easier said then done.

You can also use some sort of a parental control software for your computer, web browsing and also your email. I know there are programs like that around. Check Norton or McAffee. Look for the software they have for protecting emails. There's also some free versions around.

i think kids below 13 years hsouldnt be allowed to have email itself..

you can never guarantee whether one email service is safer than the other or not..well ofcourse gmail might be a bit safe..but i always get spam in all of my emails that i have..even in my ISP email...

i dont feel that there is any need for my children to have their own email..

especially since even i use email occasionally!

Actually there are sites designed specifically for kid's email addresses. There's one called zoobuh that my niece has an email address through. My daughter has a yahoo account that we keep close parental filters on. She's not at that email everyone point yet so her account stays pretty clean anyway.

My buddy's kids just got their own email addresses - they're 10 and 11. He went with Gmail since he thinks they're pretty good at filtering spam straight out of the gate, and I'd have to agree.

Sam

Originally Posted by mikey

This is one I am a bit worried about. If I were to open something like a gmail account for my kids just to contact their friends, it's highly likely they would start getting spammed with sex, hate, etc type mails. Is there any way out there to let kids have their own mail without the dangers of the spam?

I don't think a kid should have their own e-mail address, but then when I picture a kid, or child, being someone 10 and under. Even then, if they are under 17, they can simply use an email address that belongs to the whole family, just as the mail for the household all goes into the same mail box.