America Online now provides specialized environments for kids, all included with regular accounts at no extra cost: AOL KOL for children 12 and under, AOL RED for teens 13 to 15, and AOL RED Plus for 16- and 17-year-olds. Its filter, which uses artificial intelligence, did a very good job in testing.

Parents can set controls on up to seven accounts. Each service is customizable and provides content tailored to the intended age group. KOL, for example, offers educational content, flash cartoons, and interactive games. Instant messaging is disabled by default, but kids can access supervised chat rooms. AOL RED offers an edgier environment, emphasizing entertainment and relationships. Web access is filtered for violent, mature, and adult content. AOL RED Plus offers full access to AOL content, IM, and e-mail. It does, however, block sites with adult and violent content. Parents can get activity reports and set an access timer for all users.