Best email options for kids?

[Tap]

Dd12 needs/wants a email for school. Her teacher has the kids use email so they have access to homework where ever they are. They just email the document to themselves and then can access it whenever they need to. It really is a great tool for this reason. Kids who don't have email, use flash drives or various other methods to get the information home and back again. If they forget the drive, they don't have their work, so emailing the doc eliminates that problem.

 

We have Comcast so I figure we will just set her up and email there, but I was wondering if there are better options for kids?

 

I don't go to the Comcast site, but use my computers email program instead. I really don't know a lot about it, so I figured I would ask here.

[Twigs]

I would recommend a free email account such as yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.

If (when) you change your provider from Comcast, you lose those accounts and will have to set up new ones. If you use a free account, you will keep that one.

Our provider was changed from Comcast to Time Warner due to their re-organization, so it can happen out of your control.

Best wishes.

[Tap]

I would recommend a free email account such as yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.

If (when) you change your provider from Comcast, you lose those accounts and will have to set up new ones. If you use a free account, you will keep that one.

Our provider was changed from Comcast to Time Warner due to their re-organization, so it can happen out of your control.

Best wishes.

 

The same thing can happen with them too, can't it? It seems like the free accounts have a lot more spam. Do you find that to be true?

 

On Comcast, I only get a random bit pf spam once or twice a month, and I can usually track it back to some place that sold my name.

 

Are the parental controls effective on the free sites?

[KristinaBreece]

If you get her a hotmail account, you can have all emails downloaded into your computer's email program. That way you can see everything that's going into her email account if you feel you need to. You won't be able to see the things she sends from the webmail, but if she sends it through the computer's email program, it will be saved by default.

 

ETA: Yahoo! will not allow POP downloading to Outlook or Apple Mail or any such program. Just FYI.

[Cinder]

Both my sons have gmail accounts. It seems to do a pretty good job of catching spam before it gets to their inbox. Yahoo is doing much better since I first got my account. I'd go with gmail for your kiddos.

[JulieH]

Both my sons have gmail accounts. It seems to do a pretty good job of catching spam before it gets to their inbox. Yahoo is doing much better since I first got my account. I'd go with gmail for your kiddos.

 

:iagree:

 

I think gmail does a way better job with spam than yahoo.

[Wendy Inman]

My 9 year old has a gmail account. I have his family and friends set up as contacts. As he has never emailed anyone else, he doesn't get any spam.

 

I've used gmail for a long time and it's fabulous at catching spam.

[curlylocks]

I think gmail does a way better job with spam than yahoo.

 

:iagree: -- we use gmail. I have almost NO spam...maybe 1-2/mo and that is related to a yahoo group that I belong to.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

All of my kids have gmail accounts. I set them up so that anything they receive or send automatically gets sent to my account. They don't know the passwords to their accounts. I have to sign them in. It's worked beautifully for us.

[AlisonK]

We got our son an email with this site. It cost a little but it's safe and fun and he loves his email address. We have control and no worries about spam.

 

http://zilladog.com/default.aspx

[LidiyaDawn]

I've never gotten any "spam" in my personal gmail account. :001_smile:

 

[got a LOT of it in my old yahoo account.. not in gmail]

[Unicorn.]

Another vote for gmail!

[Candid]

I would get an email through the service you already have, but have your child email his assignments to an evernote account you will set up for him. You won't lose anything if you switch email providers and if you learn to use the evernote email "tags" evernote will organize work by subject, date, etc. Also, if your child has a cell phone with a camera (and is allowed to use it in school) they can simply snap a photo of the board and send the photo to evernote (no miscopies).

[Farrar]

Another gmail vote. *I* get spam in my gmail (though it mostly goes to my spam folder) but my kids pretty much never do (and absolutely every piece they've gotten went to their spam folders). My email address is out there because I've bought things and so forth, but theirs are not, thus the lack of spam.

[ksoika]

If you set up a gmail account, your child can use google docs to store documents that can be accessed from any computer. They also can be shared, so if he needs help he can share the document with friends, etc.

 

As he gets older and needs to keep a calendar, the google calendar is great and can be shared with you so that you can put things on it and keep an eye on what's coming up, etc.

 

ANd I've never had a problem with the gmail spam filter.

 

-Kelli

[Angie in VA]

I had a Gmail account for a few years for my ds (now 12) and he recently tried to sign in and was asked his age, and then was denied access b/c he is under 13.

 

He lost Google docs he'd written for speech and debate too.

 

Did this happen to anyone else?

[Myeightkiddies]

When emails are sent from Gmail, it does not display the user's IP address. Most other mail programs do. The only IP address displayed (hidden within the email source but easily accessible to anyone) on emails sent from Gmail is Gmail's.

[higginszoo]

Yeah, Gmail didn't ask for date of birth/age a few years ago, but they do now. We ended up getting our 10 year old a Juno account, because they would give him an account if I faxed them a permission form. We found this preferable to setting the precedent of letting him think it's ok to lie about things like one's age on the internet. But with Juno, I get a lot more spam than I did with Comcast, who was our ISP for a long time (we moved out of their service area, our current service provider makes us pay to get email through them). If Comcast will let you set up an account for under 13, I'd go that route.

[mommyrooch]

I also vote for gmail. Both of my kids use gmail and have not had any issues with spam. I also have a gmail account and have no issues.

 

In regards to the age thing. Both of my kids' accounts are registered in my name. I don't think I would be comfortable registering them under their names. Their addresses are personal and unique to them but they still don't include any personal information like real names, etc.

[SonshineLearner]

I think Gmail is great; for one thing they can do the documents on there and then you don't have to worry about forgotten memory sticks ;)

[Elizabeth in MN]

All of the web email providers that I know of (Yahoo, Gmail) require the user to be 13 or older. IMO, letting kids have an account at an age younger than that teaches them that lying (when filling out the form) is okay.

[cloversandlions]

:iagree:

 

I think gmail does a way better job with spam than yahoo.

 

My dh has a yahoo account, and I have a gmail account. Comparatively, yahoo does a terrible job at filtering spam; I rarely get spam in my gmail inbox (though for some reason, email from AARP and some printing company in the UK keeps getting through even though I've set up filters and identified it as spam for over a year!). Yahoo is doing better than they used to, but my dh's inbox still has considerably more spam than does mine.

 

I set up gmail accounts for my three children about 6 years ago - their first name, middle initial, and last name. However, those are for later... more recently, I've set up gmail accounts for each of them that are "fun" (ds's account includes a reference to his favorite historical character, and both of my daughters reference their favorite animals), but more importantly, that do not contain any identifying information. And yep, I was not able to use their actual birthdates, but my children don't know that I used my information to register the email accounts they use; IMO, they're *my* accounts for now. I do have their accounts set up to send all of their mail to my mail account, and at least my ds knows this; I've told my older dd, but she probably wouldn't remember, and it's sort of a moot point with my littlest because the only email she receives is from me. :)

Edited November 8, 2011 by WorkInProgress

[Angie in VA]

Yeah, Gmail didn't ask for date of birth/age a few years ago, but they do now. We ended up getting our 10 year old a Juno account, because they would give him an account if I faxed them a permission form. We found this preferable to setting the precedent of letting him think it's ok to lie about things like one's age on the internet. But with Juno, I get a lot more spam than I did with Comcast, who was our ISP for a long time (we moved out of their service area, our current service provider makes us pay to get email through them). If Comcast will let you set up an account for under 13, I'd go that route.

 

Zactly. We were not going to lie. I hope he can get old user id when he is of age, though.

[choirfarm]

Umm, why not let your child use yours??? My children are 16, 14 and 9 and they don't have e-mail. Of course, my 16yo finally got a cell phone and only because he started driving. Before then they don't need it.

[angela in ohio]

I got a gmail account for my dc, because they can use it no matter who we have as our provider. I have used my same Yahoo account for at least a decade even though we have been through dial-up accounts, DSLs, and now access through our cell phones. I have one for each that uses their name, nice and professional, and the girls use it for communicating with their outside teachers. They also needed an email address for CollegeBoard to sign up for the SAT-IIs.

 

I put my birthdate in, because I set it up and am monitoring it. (They have no idea gmail asked for a birthdate, because it was done before they saw it.) My compulsion to follow the rules collided with my belief in parental rights, and I ended up deciding this was the right way to handle it. I set up their passwords and they don't change them.

 

Anyway, we have four gmail accounts, and we have never received a piece of SPAM. My Yahoo account also does a pretty good job, but the ads on the site are obnoxious.

[ChandlerMom]

We have many (just counted: 10) Gmail accounts, including one for our kids (LastnameKids@gmail.com). They ALL dump into the mail account (more precisely, all but one downloads automatically to our Mail utility on our Mac. The one that doesn't is the account set up for dh's iPod so I can reach him at work, but only he and I know the account name).

 

So, YES the kids have a gmail account specifically for their stuff (emailing friends; MA newsletters, etc) BUT there is zero presumption of privacy (not an issue as our oldest is 8yo) and they don't know the passwords to the account or to log into the computer to access mail. If something comes in, I just tell them and load it up for them to read.

 

I guess my point is that you can either just give out one of your e-mail addresses or create one for sorting. You don't need to give the kids autonomous e-mail accounts just so they can get class stuff or even e-mail their friends.

 

I got my first e-mail account when I started at college, and I suspect we won't let the kids have real account until around then. :lol: My kids are young, but their cousins are older and I see no benefit to giving tweens and teens cell phones that text and unfettered computer access. No one needs >900 FB friends, like one 14yo niece has! Scary.

[angela in ohio]

My kids are young, but their cousins are older and I see no benefit to giving tweens and teens cell phones that text and unfettered computer access. No one needs >900 FB friends, like one 14yo niece has! Scary.

 

It really depends on the teens. Mine have phones with unlimited texting, as well as email addresses (though they know I can check their email and their phones at any time, as any parent could,) and their own laptop with email access. We have no problems at all. My dd texts just when she needs to, has no interest in FB ("every time one of my friends tells me I need to get on FB to see X post, it's something I wouldn't find interesting anyway, mom" :D), and uses her internet access to research papers, do work for her Robotics team, and watch classical music performances on YouTube.

 

When mine were little, I never thought we'd give them this much freedom or technology, but I never knew they'd be so much more mature than I was as a teen. :D

[LaxMom]

All of my kids have gmail accounts. I set them up so that anything they receive or send automatically gets sent to my account. They don't know the passwords to their accounts. I have to sign them in. It's worked beautifully for us.

 

My 10 y.o. has a sub-account that's part of my gmail account. (so her email address is "myemailaddress+hername@gmail.com") I set up a filter so emails sent to her go directly to her own folder, but in my inbox. My kids don't have open access to the internet or email, and I rarely check her folder, but a cursory check says pretty much everything is my dad, a couple friends who she knows in real life, and library notices.

 

I almost never get randomly generated spam. I get spam from homeschooling sites/groups that I have clearly not signed on to receive email from, but that's an issue with other HS groups/sites sharing their mailing lists. :glare:

Edited November 8, 2011 by MyCrazyHouse