Teaching & Learning with Technology

A Ypsilanti company called OnlyMyEmail Inc. this week announced the introduction of a Web-based e-mail system, OME-kids.com, which will offer children protected e-mail service.OnlyMyEmail says it will not accept payments from direct marketers to bypass its filters. That means the system will protect children both from Internet predators and e-marketers that conduct direct marketing campaigns to children.

OnlyMyEmail provides e-mail services for consumers, corporations and Internet service provider.

“We did not create OME-kids.com as a significant revenue-generator,” said Stephen Canale, president of OnlyMyEmail. “In fact, we are offering the solution at a cost-of-operation value in order to help other parents who are struggling with the same kinds of concerns.”

With the desire to provide a solution that is easy for parents and children to use, OME-kids.com creators made sure no software or hardware is necessary. Parents can subscribe and kids can access the Web-mail system using any standard Internet browser. Parents can also manage multiple OME-kids e-mail accounts on one screen.

By filtering and analyzing the complete content of a child’s e-mail and every facet of the communication — as opposed to only simple keyword or sender analysis that other companies offer — OME-kids.com provides parents with a turn-key filtering solution with advanced filtering techniques not available anywhere else.

Besides the pledge not to accept money from direct marketers, OME-kids.com also offers:

* An optional “lockdown” mode intended mostly for younger children that only allows e-mail delivery from senders who have first received parental approval.
* An optional “parental review” that saves copies of all e-mail delivered to OME-Kids.com addresses.
* An optional “kids carbon copy” setting that sends the parent copies of all outbound messages sent from child’s OME-Kids.com account.

All blocked messages may be easily released for delivery upon parental review and approval.

OME-kids.com is priced at $24 annually for up to two children’s accounts and $12 annually for each additional account.

Canale founded OnlyMyEmail in 2002, doing corporate and personal anti-spam work. Earlier, he was a technology consultant to small business owners and associations. For more on the company, visit www.onlymyemail.com.