Pen pal safety

by Martin Meyrick-Cooke
(U.K)

Hi, I have an eight year old and he wants to write letters to a pen pal. How safe is your site if a child molester or no-gooder does go through the trouble of paying the $5 dollars just to find out about our youngsters?

Wendy's Two cents: All I can say is that we provide kids/teen pals via snail mail only. The parents approve kids getting pals so they know to watch for letters. The forms mailed in are hand written (yes, I realize someone could fake a child's handwriting).

I did survey the parents of kids who got pals (a few months ago), they were all happy with the pals. One girl was screaaaaaming outdoors, mom got scared and went running -- daughter was holding her first pen pal letter! What joy!

Oddly enough, we send a list of ten pals to choose from (website says 5), yet most kids wrote to only a few.

This is not done via email where you have little control over who contacts your child... this is only done via snail mail. Parents are responsible to watch the letter writing.

Happy Writing!