Review: Kids Email

The Hubby and I had set up the girls with my old laptop, and we set up Outlook email accounts for them, mostly so I can send them assignments, links, references, and the occasional "hey check this out, it's so cool!" message. So far, they have been pretty responsible with their online activities; while Raine has a penchant for signing up for all sorts of mailing lists (like Contemporist, A Word A Day, and some shark website), she always asks me if she can do so first.

While I'm not one to pry into their privacy (sure, sure), I do appreciate being on top of what's going on in their lives (at the moment, they still tell me, and I hope that's the way it will be until they grow older). And of course, I do worry about inappropriate content making its way into the girls' inboxes. And yes, the possible inappropriate email coming from my girls. So the opportunity to review Kids Email and their  service, Kids Email Safe Email for Kids, was a pretty cool way to monitor these things.

But just a side note. Some parents believe that being into all your kids' activities is too helicopter parenting, or sheltering the kids too much or is invasion of privacy. I agree--if your kids are of that age when they are supposed to be independent, making wise decisions for themselves (and when does that happen exactly? At almost 43, I still make foolish decisions sometimes, most likely to the consternation of my mom). My girls are almost-8 and just-turned-11. While they are learning to be independent and wise, they aren't quite there yet. That's why The Hubby and I try to guide them, teach them, train them now that they're young, so that when they grow old they will not depart from it.  Being able to monitor their email activity allows me the opportunity to discuss etiquette, online security, as well as punctuation, spelling, and grammar.  We hold them closely now, and as they grow older, we allow them more freedom and independence.

Anyway.

We received a one-year subscription to  Kids Email Safe Email for Kids and the girls have been using their email service for over a month. Overall, we love it. Let me count the ways.

 

Kids Email has many features, and I like how I can control how much or how little I can monitor their incoming and outgoing mail. You can, for example, limit all messages sent and received to only those whom you have included in their contact list (and you can also set whether or not they can edit their own contact lists). You can also choose to receive a copy of all incoming and outgoing messages. You can set filters for links, and even bad words. You can also choose whether or not they receive attachments, and if they can, what kind of attachments are allowed.

 

 

The Mail Queue feature is another useful tool. It has three levels of filtering. The most liberal one is having all messages that do not pass the safety filters you set sent to the queue for your review. Second, you could force all messages to go to queue for your review and approval before you allow them to be sent to your child. Finally, you can choose to have all messages that do not meet your safety standards automatically deleted.

One possible issue with the Mail Queue, though, is when you forget to check on the queue. Messages to your child will just languish there, and your child may feel dejected because no one emails her, and the sender of the message may feel rejected because no one is replying to her email (ahem...this is, of course, all theoretical, and did not really happen in the HP Household...ahem).

 

Two other nifty features are Time Restrictions and Ground Child. I haven't used them yet, but I think I will now. The Time Restrictions, at least. They're both self-explanatory. You can set what hours and days your child can access mail with Time Restrictions. I discovered that sometimes, when I sleep in, the kids check and send email--before doing chores and school. We didn't really discuss the times that they could access email, so I don't think they deserve to be grounded from their accounts--yet. But I do think that restricting access will help remind them that there are other things that they should be doing first. And a possible consequence of not finishing what they need to do is they could be grounded--not allowed to use their account at all. You can use the Ground feature to remove access for a specific period, like two hours, or until a date that you specify.

While I liked the safety features, what the kids loved the most was that they could customize their email interface. There are several backgrounds to choose from, and you or your child can select this, from their own dashboard.

 

Another feature they loved was the Draw function, which allowed them to send drawings they made as an attachment. I think this works well on an iPad or tablet (there are apps on both).

 

We haven't been able to figure out how to change their backgrounds on the iPad or Android tablet though, and the screens are different.

 

 

I set up Raine with an older kid account. One of the most obvious differences with the regular account is the '@kmail.org' email address rather than the '@kidsemail.org' The interface is also supposedly more sophisticated, with more complex options, but I haven't really seen the difference with Breeze's regular account.

One final thing I love about Kids Email is the opportunity for the kids to make new friends, even if they are virtual ones. Raine even has a story in the works, thanks to email brainstorming with her new-found pen-pals.

Other families have also tried Kids Email Safe Email for Kids. Read about their experiences by clicking below.