The recently launched “Kiddle” promises to keep kids safe in their internet searching.
If you’ve ever checked the search history of your kid’s tablet and found entries such as “boobs,” boy, do we have great news for you! There’s a kid-friendly search engine that promises to all but eliminate the possibility of your child stumbling upon Miley Cyrus’ 2013 VMA performance while you’re too busy cooking dinner to pay attention!
Kiddle, powered by Google safe search but not owned by them, looks an awful lot like the Google search interface we’re all familiar with, but includes some cute child-like tweaks. Instead of the familiar, austere, white background there’s a fun outer space theme with a robot alien near the search bar.
According to Tech Times, Kiddle offers search results hand-picked by editors to ensure their kid-friendliness. The first one to three results will always be curated by the editors — safe sites written specifically for children. The next few results will feature sites in simple language that will be easy for kids to understand. The rest will be sites tailored to adults that may be harder for kids to digest, but are still filtered by Google safe search to avoid them stumbling on anything inappropriate.
In its “about” section, Kiddle promises your child will be safe in their searching. The logs are cleared every 24 hours and Kiddle collects no personal information. We tested the “safe content” promise by searching a few unsavory keywords kids might try to search. And Kiddle was an excellent guard dog.
Searches for “butts” and “penis” yielded the same angry robot man telling your kid to go back to square one and try again. As the parent with a kid who routinely types “sex” and “poop” into any search bar he gets his hands on, (thank you, asshole fifth grader on the bus) this is a welcome relief. My kids love playing with Google and Kiddle appears to be a fantastic and safe alternative. Hopefully, once they get past the thrill of typing in naughty words, they’ll actually look up subjects that interest them. And when they do, Kiddle’s got their back.
Let’s say your child wants to learn more about Justin Bieber but you’d rather they not find out about that time he pissed in a mop bucket or see the ass photo he posted on Instagram. Kiddle’s search will only display family-friendly biographies about the Biebs, filtering out his douchiest acts. Frankly, we should all be spared.
In this digital age, we must accept that our kids will have to use computers a lot earlier than we ever did. They’ll need the internet to do research for school and communicate with their peers and teachers. As much as we want to trust them, there are certain things it’s best not to leave to chance. Even the best parental controls haven’t stopped my kids from happening upon things they shouldn’t see but thankfully, technology is continuing to evolve and change for the better.
It looks like Kiddle might be the answer to giving kids free reign for a school project without worrying that they’ll find “Girls Gone Wild” videos in the process. Of course, we can only shield them from so much, but we have to at least try. It’s comforting when big technology companies recognize that fact and help a parent out.
(Source: Scary Mommy)
If you’ve ever checked the search history of your kid’s tablet and found entries such as “boobs,” boy, do we have great news for you! There’s a kid-friendly search engine that promises to all but eliminate the possibility of your child stumbling upon Miley Cyrus’ 2013 VMA performance while you’re too busy cooking dinner to pay attention!
Kiddle, powered by Google safe search but not owned by them, looks an awful lot like the Google search interface we’re all familiar with, but includes some cute child-like tweaks. Instead of the familiar, austere, white background there’s a fun outer space theme with a robot alien near the search bar.
According to Tech Times, Kiddle offers search results hand-picked by editors to ensure their kid-friendliness. The first one to three results will always be curated by the editors — safe sites written specifically for children. The next few results will feature sites in simple language that will be easy for kids to understand. The rest will be sites tailored to adults that may be harder for kids to digest, but are still filtered by Google safe search to avoid them stumbling on anything inappropriate.
In its “about” section, Kiddle promises your child will be safe in their searching. The logs are cleared every 24 hours and Kiddle collects no personal information. We tested the “safe content” promise by searching a few unsavory keywords kids might try to search. And Kiddle was an excellent guard dog.
Searches for “butts” and “penis” yielded the same angry robot man telling your kid to go back to square one and try again. As the parent with a kid who routinely types “sex” and “poop” into any search bar he gets his hands on, (thank you, asshole fifth grader on the bus) this is a welcome relief. My kids love playing with Google and Kiddle appears to be a fantastic and safe alternative. Hopefully, once they get past the thrill of typing in naughty words, they’ll actually look up subjects that interest them. And when they do, Kiddle’s got their back.
Let’s say your child wants to learn more about Justin Bieber but you’d rather they not find out about that time he pissed in a mop bucket or see the ass photo he posted on Instagram. Kiddle’s search will only display family-friendly biographies about the Biebs, filtering out his douchiest acts. Frankly, we should all be spared.
In this digital age, we must accept that our kids will have to use computers a lot earlier than we ever did. They’ll need the internet to do research for school and communicate with their peers and teachers. As much as we want to trust them, there are certain things it’s best not to leave to chance. Even the best parental controls haven’t stopped my kids from happening upon things they shouldn’t see but thankfully, technology is continuing to evolve and change for the better.
It looks like Kiddle might be the answer to giving kids free reign for a school project without worrying that they’ll find “Girls Gone Wild” videos in the process. Of course, we can only shield them from so much, but we have to at least try. It’s comforting when big technology companies recognize that fact and help a parent out.
(Source: Scary Mommy)
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