Now Our Kids Can “Just Google It” with Kiddle
I am a mom of four kids ranging in age from 6 to 14. I let my 6-year-old watch television shows and movies I never would have let my oldest son watch, such as Goonies and The Lord of the Rings. I mean that’s normal, right? That happens? I have had to explain that not every other kindergartener in his class will get or truly appreciate his Gollum impression.
While I am a bit more relaxed with movies the fourth time around, I’m still pretty strict when it comes to the Internet and screen time in general. But as strict and careful as I am, there are still a lot of ways my youngest could possibly see things I don’t want him to see. I know first hand that all it takes is one slip on the keyboard and you are accidentally searching for something you didn’t mean or want to see. Even as a grown up, I have accidentally seen or read things that I didn’t want to.
We live in a “just Google it” kind of world though–if we don’t know the answer to something, we Google it. And that’s awesome because we have so much information right here and everywhere. We can know so much and learn so much and find the answers. It’s really pretty fabulous. Except when it isn’t, and your kid can’t unsee stuff he shouldn’t see.
That’s why when I heard about Kiddle I was pretty excited. Kiddle is a new search engine launched for children. Results are filtered so only “safe” sites are shown and descriptions are written in simple language. Kiddle wasn’t created by Google but it does use that company’s “safe search mode” and real live human editors to weed through the information.
Kiddle claims to have:
Kids-oriented results: the examples below illustrate how Kiddle returns results for each query (in the order shown):
Safe sites and pages written specifically for kids. Handpicked and checked by Kiddle editors. Typically, results 1-3.
Safe, trusted sites that are not written specifically for kids, but have content written in a simple way, easy for kids to understand. Handpicked and checked by Kiddle editors. Typically, results 4-7.
Safe, famous sites that are written for adults, providing expert content, but are harder for kids to understand. Filtered by Google safe search. Typically, results 8 onwards.
Big thumbnails: most Kiddle search results are illustrated with big thumbnails, which makes it easier to scan the results, differentiate between them, and click the most appropriate results to your query. Thumbnails serve as visual clues and are especially beneficial to kids as they don’t read as fast as adults.
Large Arial font: provides better readability for kids.
This all sounds so good, and it mostly is. My son uses Kiddle. He asks me to help him type questions like “where do giraffes live?” and he gets so excited when all the results pop up. I do feel safer knowing that there’s “safe search” engine and Google editors helping keep it all clean and on the up and up. It feels like they are part of my online parenting village. But it’s not one hundred percent and there are some kinks Kiddle needs to work out (a few users have complained about searches turning up some not so family friendly articles, like searches for Kim Kardashian and Ray J).
So it’s not perfect, but it’s helpful and I like having helpers in my parenting village.
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