Child Safe Internet Searching

When it comes to email for children, like most things nothing is foolproof. There are over a dozen decent email client around on the internet which can filter a child's internet usage and block unwanted things but they can also block useful things too.

Fee Base Email:

The dozen or so decent email clients offered on the web don't come free! The majority of them have a price tag of around $40 rising up to $80 with some basing their fee on a monthly basis of around $5 a month.

Most of them offer URL filtering algorithm, filtering capabilities like chat blocking, chat monitoring, p2p blocking as well as Reporting capabilities and Management Capabilites.

With so many to choose from, one only has to compare the facilities offered with value for money to come to a good conclusion on which one to choose, as it is not necessarily the expensive ones that offer the best and most useful capabilities.

What to look For:

Check List:

• Are you able to create a whitelist and blacklist to allow certain emails and block others including spam senders?
• Can refused mail be sent to a parents email address instead of losing it?
• Does it include Scanning Viruses?
• Does it include the Control of Spam?
• Is the spam control configurable? So that good mail does not get thrown out with bad mail.
• Does it support profanity and vulgar word features?
• Can parental controls be password protected?

FREE EMAIL CLIENTS

There are many Free email clients available today on the internet the most popular being Yahoo with GMail by google and Hotmail by MSN which also have some great features but these email clients offer the least form of protection. Unlike your Internet Service Provider these free email services store your email information on-line. ISP let you open your messages from your own hard drive so anyone hacking in can only read your unopened emails.

Encryption is the Key

Unless you are using encryption technology with your email anyone with the know-how can see your most sensitive or personal mail. Even messages you think you may have deleted can be stored for years and could crop up and suprise you one day.

Free Web-based email clients are very insecure as most do not offer any form of encryption.

General Security

Never store anything like bank details, credit card details or any other type of financial information in folders or your Inbox in a free email client. If you have sensitive information stored in such a location and you need to keep it for reference. Copy and paste it into something like a word document or text editor like notepad and save in on your computer, or better still on a disk or other form of removable media. You may think the possibility of someone hacking into your emails is highly unlikely, but are you prepared to take the risk? Ask yourself what if ? The Modern day mugger no longer snatches your bag on the street or hits you over the head with a pipe and steals your wallet. They creep into your financial information and clean your bank out while your tucked up in bed asleep!

Tips to limit junk email

• Do not open or respond to emails from people you do not know or are not expecting a message from and never open any attachment from this type of sender. These can carry viruses and spyware revealing your information or destroying your computer. Responding to spam lets the spammer know they have found a live address.  

• Report spam to your Internet service provider.  

• Consider using an encrypted service for sensitive mail.

• Check the site’s privacy policy before signing up for any automated email newsletter to make sure your information is not passed to third parties.  

• Don’t use unencrypted Web-based email services for transmitting sensitive information. Email sent this way will reside on the Web site’s servers and may be more vulnerable to intruders than email sent through your Internet Service Provider.  

• Most people get a free email account or several through their ISP  a Web-based email service is better to use when registering for products at Websites.    

• Never give out your email address in an open chat room or forum it will eventually be crawled by email harvester bots and the spam will start to pour in.