HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 What do you use for young teen's e-mail? As in making sure they don't receive all kinds of disgusting cstuff (which is what happened within days of setting him up with yahoo). So I was going to use hotmail with Windows Live/Family Safety where you can have an allowed contacts list...but they recently got rid of that feature!!! You can no longer manage contacts. He doesn't want a little kid sounding e-mail such as kol, zoombuh, etc. But I can't figure out what else I can use to block the nasty stuff. Ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) I recall reading that aol had a feature where parents could set up/monitor kid email addresses. Eta: looking it up, it looks like that's what kol is? I made a gmail account for my son to email family. They're supposed to be good with not having spam and we haven't had any trouble. But, I don't think there are parenting features. Edited July 21, 2012 by kebg11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 I don't get a lot of spam with gmail. I used to get a lot with hotmail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 My kids have gmail accounts. I set up a forward so I see a copy of everything that goes into their inboxes. We don't have any problems with spam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 I don't get a lot of spam with gmail.I used to get a lot with hotmail. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 I recall reading that aol had a feature where parents could set up/monitor kid email addresses. Eta: looking it up, it looks like that's what kol is? I made a gmail account for my son to email family. They're supposed to be good with not having spam and we haven't had any trouble. But, I don't think there are parenting features. Thank you. Yes, kol is aol for kids. Which he doesn't want because it is a "kid e-mail"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 We've had good luck with gmail as well, but I don't like their style of managing mail you want to keep, so I mostly use Mozilla Thunderbird. You might also check to see if Hotmail or whatever you wind up using lets you run filters on incoming messages. Most programs do. Basically, it allows you to divert mail to folders as it arrives. You set up rules like: if the sender is (grandma, joey, sam, etc) then put mail in FRIENDS folder. Then he can check only that folder. You can also divert much of the smutty smut into it own folder with a rule like: if the subject contains these words (porn, lucky, hot, etc) then put mail in the JUNK folder. You can do another rule for the body of the message. Hotmail is just a red hot ghetto mess of spam, so I would probably switch him to gmail or thunderbird, and add some mail rules to try and catch anything that might get past the established spam filter. I don't have any rules set up, and the only really questionable spam I get is when someone's email gets hijacked (they are in my address book, so it sometimes gets through). Even then, I've never had the horrible stuff show up in my inbox - even if the sender is a known contact, the program usually recognizes it and segregates it in the spam/junk folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 We've had good luck with gmail as well, but I don't like their style of managing mail you want to keep, so I mostly use Mozilla Thunderbird. You might also check to see if Hotmail or whatever you wind up using lets you run filters on incoming messages. Most programs do. Basically, it allows you to divert mail to folders as it arrives. You set up rules like: if the sender is (grandma, joey, sam, etc) then put mail in FRIENDS folder. Then he can check only that folder. You can also divert much of the smutty smut into it own folder with a rule like: if the subject contains these words (porn, lucky, hot, etc) then put mail in the JUNK folder. You can do another rule for the body of the message. Hotmail is just a red hot ghetto mess of spam, so I would probably switch him to gmail or thunderbird, and add some mail rules to try and catch anything that might get past the established spam filter. I don't have any rules set up, and the only really questionable spam I get is when someone's email gets hijacked (they are in my address book, so it sometimes gets through). Even then, I've never had the horrible stuff show up in my inbox - even if the sender is a known contact, the program usually recognizes it and segregates it in the spam/junk folder. Thank you. This is very helpful. Yeah, a few months ago I set him up a yahoo account, and could not BELIEVE the stuff I found in his box. Luckily it went into the junk folder and he didn't notice it! So I told him he couldn't use that one, poor kid! So then I got him set up with hotmail today, only to find that the contact manager is no longer offered. So had to tell him he can't use that one. He is being patient, but feeling pretty desperate at this point since he wants to do his fantasy football league tomorrow! I'm thinking I'll go with gmail. I just checked my account I've had for nearly a year and there is no spam there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 Looks like you have to be 18 to have a gmail account?!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Looks like you have to be 18 to have a gmail account?!! I believe you're supposed to be 13. I just used my birthday, as it's MY account until he's an adult. I just let him use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 I believe you're supposed to be 13. I just used my birthday, as it's MY account until he's an adult. I just let him use it. Yes, and you can set up more than one account for yourself, if that hasn't changed. So it's fine to have one for your email, and one for his. //whispers// personally I am okay with the idea of fudging the dates; putting the kid's birthday and the parent's year of birth makes it easy to remember. uh, theoretically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.m Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 We use hotmail and set it up so that only preapproved contacts get through. It's kinda annoying when they get a new friend trying to email them but it works. DD no longer has her email set up that way and she hardly ever gets spam??? (but we don't have an @hotmail.com, we just use them as our delivery method.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidbits of Learning Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 KOL isn't just for kids. It has a preteen setting and a teen setting. My kids have had email since they were toddlers. We live states away from my family and they could get instant birthday wishes and such. I switched the girls accounts to teen or tween settings (it may only be teen) last year and kept the boys with the kid accounts that limit emails from anyone not in their contact list. The girls accounts can receive from those not in their contact list but filters for spam and email from known bad emails. It isn't kiddie and I get a report of all the websites that they have visited. By requiring the kids to use the AOL browser, I don't have to worry about sites they go to on the web or email they receive. With the teen setting, their news page is always something trendy with singers and stuff and has homework helps. I can also put time limits on when they can log in and how long they can be logged in during a day (very useful during school hours) It sends me a parent report detailing their usage. So I would recommend AOL (within the AOL browser). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 KOL isn't just for kids. It has a preteen setting and a teen setting. My kids have had email since they were toddlers. We live states away from my family and they could get instant birthday wishes and such. I switched the girls accounts to teen or tween settings (it may only be teen) last year and kept the boys with the kid accounts that limit emails from anyone not in their contact list. The girls accounts can receive from those not in their contact list but filters for spam and email from known bad emails. It isn't kiddie and I get a report of all the websites that they have visited. By requiring the kids to use the AOL browser, I don't have to worry about sites they go to on the web or email they receive. With the teen setting, their news page is always something trendy with singers and stuff and has homework helps. I can also put time limits on when they can log in and how long they can be logged in during a day (very useful during school hours) It sends me a parent report detailing their usage. So I would recommend AOL (within the AOL browser). It isn't the level of control he is worried about. He doesn't want to sound like a little kid with a .kol address! It may not be just for little kids, but that's how kids his age (or at least a lot of kids!) perceive it. But thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 We use hotmail and set it up so that only preapproved contacts get through. It's kinda annoying when they get a new friend trying to email them but it works. DD no longer has her email set up that way and she hardly ever gets spam??? (but we don't have an @hotmail.com, we just use them as our delivery method.) Hotmail no longer has the contact management feature! So disappointing! That's what got me started here. I had a hotmail account set up and was going to do set up certain contacts and wondered why I couldn't find the Contact Management link. After about 30 minutes of googling around, I found a Windows Live or Family Safety forum where the moderator confirmed it is no longer available. He suggested leaving feedback, so I am hopeful a lot of people will do that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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