Country Day School                             Lower School Computer Program

Set-up an age appropriate e-mail account for your son/daughter

 

Background

 

While no account is 100% safe, there are ways you can reasonably be assure that your child is receiving as little junk mail as possible and almost no adult mail.  Many accounts will allow you to set them up so you can only receive mail from people in your account.  H.o.t.m.a.i.l is one of these accounts, which offers an effective kid friendly, web based, e-mail service, which is FREE.  There are other such e-mail providers on the Internet that can offer similar or alternative services to protect children. The best thing would be for you to research what is available and make the best choice for you and your child's needs (click here for your child's academic needs). They also have something called K.i.d P.a.s.s.p.o.r.t.  I'm not completely clear on the Kid Passport, but it helps to inhibit your child from access any website.  While this is good, it is limited and doesn't stop your child from accessing websites on their own if they know how to type the address in themselves (which I teach them, but discourage), or search for things on their own using a search engine, e.g. Google or Ask Jeeves.

 

Note: The use of H.o.t.m.a.i.l is not endorsed by or is in any way affiliated with Country Day School. It is simply the opinion of the Lower School Technology Instructor through watching his students and limited familiarity with H.o.t.m.a.i.l, that H.o.t.m.a.i.l offers a service that effectively meets parent concerns regarding their children when using e-mail and receiving inappropriate messages. It is no way a reflection of other e-mail services, nor does it discredit the valuable services offered by other e-mail providers.

 

Here are some instructions to help you set up your kid friendly e-mail account.

 

  1. Before you begin, talk to your child about the potential dangers and types of information that can be found on the Internet.   Explain how the Internet can be a great thing, but they need to treat it seriously and cautiously. 
  2. Prepare to set up the e-mail account, by finding out from them what ID they would like to have and have a couple of backups in case someone else has already used that ID.  They can make it cute, but remind them it shouldn't be something that changes regularly.  So he/she shouldn't choose an ID that reflects what they "like" this month.  It can be personal like a nickname or first name, but avoid putting their last name in it or their birth date.  Also avoid choosing ID's that are suggestive, e.g. foxymama@hotmail.com, as these only invite potential predators youth or adult.
  3. You as the parent need to set up your own .net passport account.  You can do it while you are signing your child up.  At some point, you will be asked for credit card information to verify your age and to prevent fraud.  Don't worry, this is a secure location, and Hotmail does not charge anything to your account or disseminate this information to anyone according to their own privacy policy.
  4. Finally, let's set up the account –- follow the steps below.

 

Let's get started:

 

Get online

 

Go to the web site:  http://www.hotmail.com  (seen below)

 

Since you are creating an account, click on the link Sign Up or E-Mail Account

This brought me directly to the Registration Form, but in some cases I ve seen where it asked me what type of account would I like, choose the FREE account for E-mail only.  Don t choose one of the paid service accounts.

 

The following registration screen will appear (pictures have been cropped for simplicity)

 

The following screens will ask you for:

            1. Profile Information

            2. Account Information

            3. Registration Forms

            4. Agreement

1. Profile Information

 

Enter First/Last name.

Language Defaults to English.

“"Virgin Islands" is on the Country/Region list.

Time zone will list St. Thomas.

Check off circle, male/female.

Enter birth date using lists and typing in the year.

“"Student" appears on the Occupation list.

 

 

2. Account Information

What will your child's ID be, remember what you prepared for above.

Passwords are case sensitive, which means if you type upper case it must be upper, if you type lower case it must be lower.  My recommendation to you is keep it all LOWER case.

Secret question/answer, in case you forget your password, but make it obvious so it won't be hard to remember.  Try not to use extra spaces in your answer if any.

Click OFF "H.o.t.m.a.i.l Member Directory" and “"Internet White Pages".  These default to being checked.

Type the box provided what you see in the picture.  This inhibits computer fraud and SPAM mail.

 

3. Registration Forms

These default to not being checked, but make sure anyway.

 

4. Agreement

Once you ve gone through this process, click on I Agree  after reading the agreement and Terms of Use information.  The computer will recognize that your child s account is for a minor and will ask if your parents are there, click yes .

You will be asked for at a couple of other screens simple questions, go through these and sign in.  If you have a Hotmail Account or MSN Account you should already be signed up for a Passport Account.  Here s where you need to sign up if you don t have either of these.

 

Credit card screen would come after this.

After you sign in, you will come to a Passport Account Setup.  I m not going to go through this, but if it interests you, please read-up on it and proceed.  From here, click on Hotmail, bottom left hand corner of page.

 

 

When you first go into Hotmail, you will be asked to subscribe to what interests you.   They default to not being checked, but make sure.  Then proceed to bottom of page, and click Continue .


& &

 

Once you get through these, and if asked, you child should log into Hotmail, you will be in your child s account.

 

Once in there, look for the Options link.  The options link is to the right of the Contacts  tab.  (See below.)

 

Click on the Junk Mail option in the Mail Handling Category.

 

 

Click on Exclusive Filter Level, then the bottom half will appear.  Click on Delete Junk Mail immediately.

Click on Save changes.

 

Go back to the Inbox, and/or then to the Contacts  tab. Please, add me.  jgarren@stxcontryday.com.

 

Good luck, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.