Safety net - how to protect your child

'It works both ways - the emails that are in the agreed list are totally private, the parent never sees their contents. This means a child is allowed to grow and develop and interact with their peers privately. But at the same time the parent has total peace of mind because they are happy about who their child is chatting with. If the parent receives an unauthorised email they can sit down with the child and decide whether the address should be added to the allow list.

'The parent is the only one with access to the allow list so the child can't get anywhere near that,' says Chrissie.

Spreading the word
The secure email system was the brain-child of a then 14-year-old Carl Gaywood who was sick of being bombarded with unwanted spam. Now, aged 19, he is employed by TownSites.co.uk and runs the kidscom.co.uk website.

Kidscom.co.uk is spearheading a campaign for government recognition and wants to provide every child in the country a safe email address. They already have the backing of Labour MP for Sittingbourne & Sheppey, Derek Wyatt, and 11 schools have signed up.

In a testimonial on the site Mr Wyatt says: 'Unwanted and potentially dangerous contact with children via e-mail is a significant and growing threat, and I am very supportive of a British company taking the lead in providing an effective and simple way to protect children from such e-mails.

'I think this is an extremely good idea. As a family man with two children who have received a growing number of unwanted spam e-mails, I am pleased this does the trick.'

To get a free, safe email account for your child click here.

You can also join their campaign to lobby the government.