Family Protection is an open list (VPE enabled) designed for a small group of close family members who want to communicate with the outside world - schools, doctors, service providers - without exposing personal email addresses, and who need a caregiver or parent to have visibility into a dependent member’s communications.
The key feature is the care sublist. When a dependent member (an elderly parent, a child) and their caregiver (an adult child, a parent) are both on the same sublist, any email sent to that sublist address reaches both of them. The dependent member can communicate freely; the caregiver sees everything that goes through the care channel without needing access to the dependent’s personal inbox.
1. EMail Parrot Configuration
Create your list. Go to emparrot.com/admin and create a new list. family@emparrot.com works well for a household list.
Add all family members with pseudonyms. Use whatever names make sense internally - “mom”, “dad”, “gpa”, or real names.
Enable VPE. In Group Settings, set “Open Email List with VPE” to True. This allows outside parties (schools, doctors, services) to email the list address, and allows family members to initiate contact with outside parties without exposing personal addresses.
Create a care sublist for each dependent member. Add both the dependent and their caregiver to a sublist. Name it something clear - gpa-care for a grandparent, teen for a teenager. Any email sent to gpa-care.family@emparrot.com will reach both Grandpa and their caregiver.
Enable Advanced Protection. For families protecting elderly or younger members, the stricter screening catches more sophisticated spoofing attempts and reduces false-positive delivery of phishing mail.
Recommended settings:
- VPE: enabled
- Direct messaging: on (default)
- Advanced protection: on
- Strip external content: on (default)
- AI safe protection: on if family members use AI email assistants
2. Your Email Client Setup
This is where the Family Protection pattern extends beyond EMail Parrot itself.
For the dependent member’s inbox (the strongest protection):
If the dependent member has a dedicated email account (a new Gmail created for this setup, recommended), configure that inbox to treat any email not arriving from EMail Parrot as low-priority or spam. In Gmail, this means creating a filter:
- Condition:
from:(-emparrot.com)or more specifically the relay sender domain - Action: Skip inbox, apply label “Review”
This means the dependent’s inbox fills only with EMail Parrot-screened mail. Scammers who obtain the real address (from old data breaches, for example) cannot reach the inbox directly.
For the caregiver:
Create a filter that routes mail from the care sublist address to a dedicated folder. This separates care-channel mail from the caregiver’s own email traffic and makes it easy to monitor without the oversight feeling intrusive.
For the whole family:
Consider creating a filter that routes all EMail Parrot relay mail to a shared folder or label, separate from personal email. This makes it easy to see at a glance what has come through the family list.
3. Addressing Conventions
Give outside parties the care sublist address, not the full family list address. When signing up a dependent member for a school portal, doctor’s appointment system, or other service, use care.family@emparrot.com (or whatever you named the care sublist). This ensures both the dependent member and their caregiver receive that communication.
For the dependent member to contact outside parties outbound: They use the VPE format: +doctor=at=clinic.com+family@emparrot.com. This sends the message to the doctor while showing only family@emparrot.com as the sender address. The doctor’s reply routes back through EMail Parrot.
Use the address conversion tool to convert any outside address to VPE format. Save the converted address as the contact record for that outside party so all future messages to them route through the relay automatically.
Internal family messages use the standard list or sublist addresses as with any private group. Family members can DM each other using ~pseudonym.family@emparrot.com.
Settings to Consider
The recommended settings cover the typical family protection scenario. Additional options to consider based on your family’s situation:
AI safe protection blocks prompt-injection attempts in email content - attempts by a sender to manipulate an AI assistant that might process messages on a recipient’s behalf. If any family member uses an AI email assistant or has AI features active in their email client (summary tools, smart reply), enable this on the list.
Instant deletion instructs EMail Parrot to purge relayed content from its logs immediately after delivery. For families where the dependent member’s communications are particularly sensitive - medical discussions, financial matters, anything that should not persist in any third-party system longer than necessary - instant deletion reduces the log retention footprint.
Care sublist membership. The care sublist can include more than one caregiver. If a dependent has both a primary caregiver and a backup (two adult children looking after an elderly parent, or co-parents), add both to the care sublist. All care-channel mail reaches everyone on it automatically.
Outbound from dependent via caregiver review. There is no built-in approval workflow for outbound VPE messages. If the dependent’s outbound email to outside parties also needs caregiver visibility, ensure the caregiver is on the same sublist the dependent sends from. The relay will copy both of them on the threaded responses back.
Checklist
- List created at emparrot.com
- All family members added with pseudonyms
- VPE enabled in Group Settings
- Care sublist created with dependent and caregiver as members
- Advanced protection enabled
- Dependent member’s inbox configured to prioritize EMail Parrot-relayed mail
- Caregiver filter set up to surface care-channel mail
- Outside parties (school, doctor, etc.) given the care sublist address
- Family members shown the address conversion tool for outbound VPE contact
Back to setup options | Addressing reference | Administrator documentation