Maily: Your Kids' First Email
Maily: Your Kids' First Email
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Maily: Your Kids' First Email offers young kids a secure, parent-monitored interface for sending and receiving emails. Parents set up kids' accounts, add contacts, and -- if they adjust their settings accordingly -- screen all activity. The simple canvas for composing includes age-appropriate tools like stamps, paintbrushes, and stationery. Approved contacts can reply using kid-friendly themes from Maily's web-based inbox. The app currently supports only one child per device.
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What’s It About?
Once parents set up MAILY: YOUR KIDS' FIRST EMAIL, kids can access the app's simple interface for composing messages. A creation toolbar at the bottom of the screen lets kids choose stationery, add stamps, take a photo with the device's camera, and use the paintbrush, pencil, and eraser tools. The speech bubble button on the top left takes kids to their inbox. After they finish creating an email, kids tap the envelope button on the top right to choose a contact (listed with nickname and profile pic) and send their message.
Is It Any Good?
The strength of Maily: Your Kids' First Email lies in its kid-friendly design and safety features. It gives young kids a protected space to learn about and experiment with what is now a commonplace form of communication. The image-based navigation and interface makes emailing understandable to pre-readers and early readers. Kids can practice writing, reading, and creativity as they send and receive messages. And parents can use Maily as a way to introduce kids to online behavior and ethics.
We anticipate Maily to improve with future updates. As it is now, the set up process is somewhat clunky, and the default settings are not the safest option. Parents will need to manually select the option to screen all email. Also, parents can only set up an account for one kid; the workaround is to set up multiple parent accounts (one for each kid) and log out and back in to switch. Finally, it would be nice if kids could include video, audio, or animations in their messages. For parents interested in an age-appropriate and safe online communication tool for young kids, Maily fits the bill.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Help kids understand online safety with parallels to real-world safety lessons they already know, such as being cautious of strangers.
Encourage kids to use the pencil tool to write messages. They will love the drawing tools and stickers, but Maily can also help with writing skills.
Adjust your settings to screen kids' incoming mail.
App Details
- Device: iPad
- Subjects: Language & Reading: reading, writing
- Skills: Tech Skills: digital creation, using and applying technology, Creativity: imagination, making new creations, Communication: multiple forms of expression
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: August 6, 2012
- Category: Education
- Publisher: Goodnews.is
- Version: 1.1.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 4.3 or later
- Last updated: August 19, 2016
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