Kids Free Email Accounts for Peace of Mind

Even though there's a wide range of free email services competing for your attention if you're over 18 years old, for some reason the few email services that offer kids safe free email accounts typically charge for email accounts. Given, that those charges usually aren't outrageous, why is it so difficult for parents to find a decent free email account that can provide parental filtering? Read on to learn about a few sites that really do care about the safety of children online, and offer such free accounts for kids.

A Few Kids Free Email Accounts Are Better Than Nothing

While kids free email accounts may be difficult to find, at least they do exist. The criteria for a truly "safe" email account for your kids should at least include a feature where only the parent can add or remove "buddies" from the list of people the child can email, or receive email from. This is the most important feature for a couple of reasons. One is that if the parent has control of the contact list, then there's absolutely no way any questionable contact can even occur. By limiting those contacts to only a few trustworthy friends and family members, the parental worry about a child's online use is almost completely put to rest.

The other reason such a feature is so important is because even though many kids free email accounts tout their ability to filter objectionable spam - the fact of the matter is that some spam mail can always get through. This would normally be a significant concern, because who wants their child reading some advertisement about male enhancement products? However, if the free email for kids only allows emails through that have an approved "sender" in the header - then absolutely none of those spam messages will come through. The parental control of the contact list is the ultimate test of a truly "safe" free email account for kids. The following are a few free services that meet all of the criteria for a truly safe email service for children.

KidRocket - A Free Web Browser for Kids

KidRocket is a high quality, free web browser that's offered for kids to access the Internet through a safe portal. All you need to do is download and install the web browser, and along with the browser software there's an email system set up just for kids. Children who use the browser can only visit a select number of approved "safe" websites. Aside from the fact that the email software let's parents approve or block emails, what makes this particular option so tempting are the great features of the web browser, which include:
A "time lock" so you can limit how long your child spends on the Internet

A great list of games and approved websites that any child will enjoy

Many features are now voice enabled for children who may not read very well

The browser locks down the entire desktop so children can't use any other application

The browser comes with a full featured Internet filter

No "outbound links" are allowed, so clicking on links in approved websites will still block a child from visiting unapproved websites

Thankfully, KidRocket recently added the email feature to their free browser, so parents can now add KidRocket to the very short list of truly "free" kids email accounts that are available on the Internet.

Gaggle - A Free, Safe Email Service for School Districts

In a day and age where school budgets are being drastically cut, it's nice to see a free service that targets school systems. That's exactly what Gaggle is all about. Gaggle is a free "filtered" email service for school systems that allows teachers to closely monitor and filter what students are doing with those email accounts. The free account does display ads in order to cover the cost of the service, but the features of the service are more than enough to make up for it. In addition to a safe email service, Gaggle also offers teachers with a secure service to host chat rooms and forums where students and teachers can all discuss in-class activities and homework. Additionally, the system allows the teacher to add parental accounts in order to foster school/parent communication.

ZillaDog - The Best Free, Safe Email Service for Kids

ZillaDog, by far, blows away the competition when it comes to providing a safe place where kids can use their own email account. It was originally created by parents, so you know that they understand what a parents real concerns are related to a child's online activities. Through the "ZillaMail" email service, parents can control which friends and family the child can communicate with, and kids get to enjoy the fun online environment of "ZillaDog," a portal where they can visit all of their favorite websites like Club Penguin and Nickelodeon.

Some other features that are very helpful for parents when allowing their young kids to send emails online:
Parents control the buddy list

You can configure outgoing messages to get copied to you so you can monitor conversations

Zero spam - only approved senders can send emails to your children

Compared to all other free email services for kids, so far ZillaDog runs at the front of the pack for the amount of services they offer and the fact that the service is absolutely free, unlike most other kid's email accounts out there.

Do you know of any other great free email services for kids? Share your own resources in the comments section below!