'Kid-safe' search engine helps find age-appropriate content
There are parts of the Internet that are dark, disgusting and scary. Sometimes it's too easy for kids to locate these spaces.
Kiddle, a search engine powered by Google but not a Google product itself, excludes certain terms that are NSFC (not safe for children).
You May Also Like
When a young person searches a term that the team from Kiddle have deemed to be "inappropriate," a robot appears to warn children of the error.
Kiddle's "About" page explains how it cultivates results. The first 1-3 results are "handpicked and checked by Kiddle editors," the next 4-7 are sites not for children but written in appropriate and easily read language for children, also chosen by the Kiddle experts. The next are "famous sites written for adults...but are harder for kids to understand" and uses the Google safe search to filter out any explicit content. Parents can also block out certain phrases or sites themselves.
The criteria for what qualifies a subject to banned from Kiddle is not clear, but this search bar certainly makes it more difficult for children and young teens to find explicit content or pornography.
Part of the criticism was that Kiddle was limiting young people from searching things they are genuinely curious about; the terms "transgender" and "bisexual" were banned and would give the same error message as "boob" would.
However, we searched the term and now when those words are searched, educational resources about the topics appear:
When searching about topics that are current or in the news, the results on Kiddle are extremely watered-down. While we agree an 8-year old doesn't really need to know Donald Trump's foreign policy, when you search the presidential candidate all that appears are biographies about him, in appropriate language.
Similarly, these links appear when searching Amanda Bynes, Kiddle skips over the actress's recent mental health struggles and simplifies her to a few bio's:
The issue with Kiddle is how their information is found is not clear. Yes, as it says the editors "handpick" the first few results, but who those experts are or what their qualifications are isn't available on Kiddle. If they are picking individual terms and phrases, they cannot possibly catch every search term that can result in explicit content. As any adult who's used the Internet before can attest to, it's very easy to start by searching for something innocent and wind up seeing something not-so-innocent. We reached out to Kiddle for comment on this but received no response.
Jeff Godlis, the director of communications for Internet literacy education publisher i-Safe, said in an interview with Mashable in 2011, "I think that filters and monitors give parents a false sense of security — as long as the filters are on, I don’t have to worry." He continued, "They certainly can over-rely on it. Kids are pretty smart and they get around everything. They know how to use proxy servers and they know how to do things that parents don’t."
In an age where kids know to go to the Internet when they are curious about things, it can be difficult to prevent children from finding explicit or damaging content. If they want to find something bad enough, they probably will be able to.
Still, with plentiful misinformation out there, providing them with age-appropriate, accurate content is important.
Just as it is up to the parents to try to monitor their children's Internet activity, it is their job as well to decide when they can start using the real Google-you can determine when your child can take their cyber training wheels off.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics Google Family & Parenting
Chelsea Frisbie was interning at Mashable as the Lifestyle Section Intern. A SUNY Oswego Alum, she graduated with a degree in Broadcasting and Mass Communication and a minor in Gender Studies, and while there received several awards for her three talk shows and work in local news. Her favorite pastimes include watching Dr. Phil, practicing her Emmy acceptance speech, and subtly sneaking feminism into her daily conversations.
