clavus

I want to set up an email account for my 3rd grader.

Based on the volume of viagra ads and "hot horny cocksuckers want to fuck you now" SPAM I get to my Yahoo account and the accounts attached to my own sites, I'm not really sure how to go about this.

How does one go about setting up a safe email account for a little kid?

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shakran

Pretty difficult, really. I will say I have yet to receive such things at my gmail address, but then I also do not use that address to fill out forms.

kurty[B]

I'm interested in this too.

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pig

I don't get any at gmail either, and I've filled out *some*forms with it, although usually only quasi-professional things that wouldn't likely sell it to a donkey-porn seller. I'd also put a .forward file on your email server (or have the mail forwarded otherwise) to a mirror account you set up for yourself to periodically be able to monitor the email if something sets off your alarm. I've also found that downloading the email from gmail to an email client (I use Outlook as I'm currently a MS whore) tends to cut down the spam even further.

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ShaniFaye

I set Amanda up with a gmail account a few years ago, and I monitor it...I've yet to see that kind of spam come addressed to it

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The_Jazz

I've found that email addresses that do not get used on commercial sites at all - in other words, they will not be put on a list that will be sold - are pretty much immune to this. The host doesn't seem to matter. I have a Yahoo and a Gmail account that each have never seen a piece of spam because of what I use them for.

When the boys are old enough, I'll set something up for them similar, I'm sure. The major hosts aren't allowed to sell your information without your consent. If that changes, I'll rethink then, I guess.

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Ayashe

I would think that a good discussion on internet safety would be the bigger priority. If he/she is just emailing his/her close friends and Grandparents, etc.. then you shouldn't have too much to worry about as far as where the account is set up.

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kurty[B]

I don't want to thread jack, but...

For those who have accounts setup for their kids. When they get old enough and figure out that you are monitoring it, and they start changing passwords and removing any forwarding objects from the account so it doesn't get forwarded to an e-mail address you have setup for yourself how would you respond to such action?

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ShaniFaye

Manda doesnt have to figure out that Im monitoring, she knows I am, that was the condition that she got one, she changes her password or I find something there that shouldnt be...she no longer gets internet access

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

SecretMethod70

Definitely use GMail. It catches almost everything, and you can use a Firefox extension to hide the unread number for the spam folder, thereby removing some temptation for your kid to click into those e-mails.

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ngdawg

At the risk of getting pelted with cyber-tomatoes, a freebie AOL email account with a child-specific sign-on will also work. We used this for years. One time, my daughter's somehow got hit with a porn spam, but other than that, it was pretty good and it also prevented sites from coming thru should the kid type in something less than appropriate in the search and prevented most downloads.

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LoganSnake

I get at least 5 viagra/bigger cock ads in Gmail per day. I've only filled out some forms with it. Gmail is pretty good at filtering it out, however.

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Martian

How old is a third grader? 8?

Gmail is good, but for this application I think Hotmail would be better. You can set the rugrat's email account up so that it filters out all messages sent from anyone not on his contact list, and also so that it deletes them immediately. I actually thought gmail had similar functionality, but just had a look through the settings and couldn't find any such options.

Anyway, that deals neatly with the spam issue. He'll need to add friends and family to his contact list, which is a minor inconvenience, but he also won't be hassled about getting a bigger penis and fucking horny sluts in all their holes.

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- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

MontanaXVI

I'm with Martian, you have to have some sort of a whitelist that they have to put in people they want to contact or it doesn't come through.

I would imagine there would be some way to do this with Gmail or even outlook if you want to keep it as an ISP account for them.

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Xerxys

People,m new computers mean windows vista, sorry for sounding like an ad here but you can do shit with this thing including limit almost everything they do, not only internet access, it's stepford wives freaky.

mixedsubstance

Gmail. I NEVER get spam. It all immediately goes into the SPAM folder. And you, as the parent, can monitor and clean it out. Plus they have cool themes kids would enjoy. I just created an account for my 8-yr-old son on it a few days ago.

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Baraka_Guru

Did no one try a Google search?

ZooBuh! Safe Email for Kids and Families - Internet Safety
Internet Safety - Email for Kids - Safe2Read
http://www.kidmail.net/

These were some top hits on a search for "email for kids." I figured there must be something with products and services such as safe surfing and cell phones.

I'm sure there's lots out there. Be sure to check into how the service works exactly.

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Charlatan

My son uses gmail... he's 14 but has had the account for a few years now. The spam filer on gmail doesn't let all that much crap through.

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Daniel_

We use hotmail with their family safe system set up. It requires a parental authorisation to add a contact, and deletes messages that are not white-listed addresses (or relays them to a parent).

The PW is set by the parent and the kid cannot change the settings.

As Shanni says, if we catch her abusing our trust, she loses internet access, which I can do in several ways up to taking away the PC if she managed to beat my mad tech skillz.

She's 8, so it's not much of an issue yet.

I grew up in a house where there was much adult material, in book and magazine form (not particularly pornographic, but medical books, reference books, Erica Jong and her ilk, "rude" fiction and so on, and the rule from age 12 or so was that I could read anything I could find on any bookshelf, but I had to be prepared to read it in the living room with the family, and I had to prove I was actually reading it.

On a related note, this attitude led to me reading voraciously, and fast - I finished LoTR (full trilogy plus appendices) in four days the first time I read it (aged 10) having got he single volume for Christmas, and my entire family refused to believe it, until they quizzed me for what in memory was hours, but in reality was not long at all I expect, until it was clear that I knew more than they did about the books.

The best way to protect my daughter is to ensure she knows what porn spam is and why it's not harmful, just annoying - otherwise she's going to fall prey to every scam artist she encounters the moment I stop looking over her shoulder as she grows up.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
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