New e-mail software to protect children

The software aims to protect children using the internet

Parents should soon be able to monitor their children's e-mails using software developed by a Milton Keynes company.

Kid-e-mail, which has been trialled by West Midlands Police, is designed to let parents find out who their children are talking to.

If a parent becomes suspicious, data provided by Kid-e-mail can enable police to track down the exact address where an e-mail sent by the child was opened.

Drew Winslow of developers Advanced Ability said: "We are not trying to scaremonger, but parents do need to be in control of what their children are doing."

Emails will be clearly labelled

The new programme, which will be availble free from November, lets parents find out the real e-mail address where their children's messages are being read.

Many paedophiles who prey on children in internet chatrooms hide behind several false e-mail addresses.

The service also provides information such as when the message was opened.

And it gives the computer's IP address, which can be used by the police to track down the user.

Mr Winslow said: "It's completely legal - we don't use any illegal hacking methods at all."

That means the software cannot break through more sophisticated security systems used by many major companies.

But Mr Winslow said: "If Kid-e-mail can't track an email then the question is, why not?

"What 13-year-old wants to hide behind four firewalls?"

Clear labels

Mr Winslow said the new programme would not collect data on people without their knowledge.

All e-mails monitored will be clearly labelled as such.

"The main reason we're doing this is not to catch people, it's to deter them.

"If it's one in a million that's caught, we'll be happy that they've been caught - and that the others have been scared off."

BBC News Online Technology correspondent Mark Ward said it was not always possible to directly link a person to a specific net IP address.

"Often net service providers give users a different address every time they log in online - firewalls can obscure them and e-mail can be spoofed.

"There are also strict laws governing who the information can be given to and under what circumstances."