The Bottom Line
Starfish Family Mail is an easy to use and fun email client that protects kids (and anybody else) by allowing only specific contacts and by stripping HTML. Unfortunately, its authentication is weak.
Pros
- Starfish Family Mail is an easy to use email program
- Allowing email exchange only with approved contacts, Starfish Family Mail is safe for kids
- Starfish Family Mail strips attachments, HTML and scripts for safety
Cons
- Starfish Family Mail can be circumvented
- Weak authentication and lack of encryption and digital signatures
- Some HTML support would be nice to have in Starfish Family Mail
Description
- Starfish Family Mail is a simple, easy to use email client for POP accounts.
- Supports multiple users. Each has their own list of friends who they can communicate with.
- Additionally, Starfish Family Mail can require sender "authentication" through a secret phrase.
- Starfish Family Mail strips HTML and certain attachments to protect privacy and security.
- Includes a spell checker and supports file attachments.
- Starfish Family Mail's interface is skinnable.
- Starfish Family Mail supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP.
Guide Review - Starfish Family Mail 1.5 - Email Program
Most email programs offer lots and lots of options, features and toolbar buttons.
Starfish Family Mail succeeds at reducing the complexity of other email clients to the essentials. This makes Starfish Family Mail particularly easy to use, and it also comes with special features that reduce the security and privacy threats.
For each user, the admin can specify a list of "friends" to communicate with. Messages from other senders are hidden. Additionally, Starfish Family Mail can require a secret phrase to be present somewhere in the message to authenticate the sender.
Unfortunately, Family Mail lacks encryption and secure message signing. And while the security from stripping HTML and attachments is great, some HTML formatting would be fun.
