Mouse Mail, Navigating the Internet Safely for Children
October 6, 2011
Have young kids in your house who want to be online just like their older siblings? My 6 yr old asked me recently when he can have a Facebook account. He uses words like skyping and texting, things that didn’t exist when his oldest brother was his age. Sometimes it feels as though we as parents are navigating unchartered waters. We are the ones who are forging the way with social media and our children, trying to figure out the balance.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to look at MouseMail, which calls itself the safest children’s portal to the Internet. It is geared toward the youngest members of the family, children ages 4-11. It has filtered email and web texting, which prevents anything going through to your child that contains offensive material. Copies of any emails that are deemed offensive are emailed to the parent instead of the child. There are also games and a calendar feature. It’s like a one stop shop for your child’s access to the Internet.
They recently launched a child safe video chat as a premium upgrade to the companies’ free email and web texting service. The new, patent pending chat technology prevents children from having any contacts via video without the parent first approving the contact. So you can add their friends, mom, dad, far away relatives to their contact list. Young children can safely and independently chat with these pre-approved contacts.
I love the idea of these features, which enable children to have the feeling of independence but still be appropriately supervised. After trying out MouseMail, the only complaints I have are 1) that the chat feature, as well as the games, are not compatible with Mac, and 2) it can not be accessed by people who have restricted work computers. So while I originally thought that this would be perfect for communicating with your child as a traveling parent, this is most likely not going to be a viable option. Still, I thinkMouseMail is on the cutting edge of social media technology and can help parents insure that their children are interacting online in the safest manner possible
I am going to be giving away a one year membership to MouseMail to one of you lucky commenters below.
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry
methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment
on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on
this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about
an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be
selected.
Contest will last 10/6-11/2
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Ahhh! I would love a subscription as my 6 year old now wants a facebook account as well… oh goodness they grow up fast…
October 6th, 2011 at 2:07 pmI would love to try this out. My 9 year old desperately wants to be high tech like his middle school friends. I tweeted this but don’t know how to tell you the URL. I am @ellensgrind if you want to follow me, then you’ll see it!
October 6th, 2011 at 2:55 pmI bet my daughter, who is also 6, would LOVE this, so she can be just like me.
Please enter me in the contest. I think this is an excellent balance between their independence and safety, I will definitely be looking into it for my 6 year old.
October 6th, 2011 at 3:28 pmI wonder if you could blog with this. I want to give my crazy 6 year old a writing outlet lol
October 6th, 2011 at 3:47 pmThis comment is less about mousemail, although it sounds cool, and more about you.
October 6th, 2011 at 4:01 pmI just wanted to say that I really miss your blog. I miss hearing about your kids. I know they’ve grown up, and you’re busy and single parenting and they are all in school. I’m not faulting you in any way. I just wanted you to know that you’re missed.
Pick me! I definitely want to try this for my 6 year old as well. He’s been itching to get his fingers on the computer and all I can think about is “To Catch a Predator”. MouseMail seems like a great safe haven for our technology advanced children!
October 7th, 2011 at 12:20 amCute site, Mousemail. It is amazing how quickly they catch on to what the older sibs are doing. My eight year old begs for facebook, mostly for those stupid games (farmville).
October 7th, 2011 at 6:57 amI have an almost 8-y-o for whom this would be perfect!
October 7th, 2011 at 8:13 amWith three kids, this seems like an excellent solution to allowing them online, but still keeping them safe.
October 7th, 2011 at 8:21 amI would love this! Sophia is at the age where she’s constantly agitating to be online, and it makes me nervous…
October 7th, 2011 at 10:35 amI have two kiddos who I think would love that, I hate having to watch them all the time online.
October 7th, 2011 at 9:35 pmThis is great. I have 5 children 10 and under who want to get on the web but I’m a little nervous to put them out there.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:06 pmA good idea, but we only have Mac computers.
October 8th, 2011 at 8:39 pmPick me
October 10th, 2011 at 6:57 pmWhat a great idea…with kids nine on down, that sounds just like what I need!
October 10th, 2011 at 10:51 pmMouseMail sounds really interesting. My eldest is just at the age where the internet is starting to seem interesting.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:47 amIt sounds very interesting! I’d love to give it a go- I have an 11year that I would like to go gently into teenager-dom and technology!
Thanks!!
October 18th, 2011 at 7:13 pmI like that it’s for kids under 10 and that they can watch movies approved by kids their age
October 25th, 2011 at 1:10 amtbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
tweet
October 25th, 2011 at 1:16 amhttp://twitter.com/#!/ChelleB36/status/128699792141455360
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com