(update: March 2, 2016 – Check the comments below for updates and additional links)
Kiddle.co
Lots of folks are sharing links to kiddle.co, supposedly a new kids search tool and touting it as an answer to a parent’s prayers, so to speak.
It’s not that new, the domain was registered in 2014 and the service was mentioned in some blog posts back then. But it’s getting new press this week, initially from some business magazines that should do more fact checking before they report. This tool is most definitely not some long-awaited release from Google that they describe.
It does use the Google’s custom search service which allows anyone to build their own custom search box using Google results. (A really great service, btw.) Kidrex, GoGooligans and other tools that have disappeared, have all used this approach. Each of them limits results by turning on Google’s Safe Search option and to some extent by simply blocking what kiddle is calling “bad words”. Sure wish they’d use some other wording there. Search for “breast cancer” and you get no results and you’re told there was a bad word in your search. Similarly “sperm whale” “sexual harassment” etc…. (Thanks to my friend JD for some of these examples.)
There was a well-deserved brouhaha today about the words gay, lesbian, homosexual, etc. being blocked and labeled “bad”. That’s changed, they’re still blocked, but the response is less judgmental now.
On top of all this, kiddle is full of ads. Sure, it’s fine to have ads on a website, I have ads on this site. But if you’re going to have a kidsafe search engine, get rid of the ads.
I don’t really love any of these tools, though if I had to pick one of these custom search engines, it would be Kidrex. It doesn’t have ads and the message when you enter something potentially not kid-safe is “oops, try again” – not judgy and guilt-heavy!
But remember, the results are still coming from Google. No amount of keyword blocking and “safe search” filters will keep kids from finding stuff you might question. So none of these tools are answers to all your parental prayers. I’m not saying don’t use them, just use them wisely.
Other tools??
You might give SweetSearch a try, great for older elementary and middle school students. It searches 35,000 pre-screened educational resources. Easy to use and free.
And check with your local school and public libraries. See what research resources they have for kids, I’m pretty sure you’ll find some great resources there.
Most of all, be there when your younger kids are searching for information, help them navigate the virtual world, just as you do the physical world. Will they still search for silly, stupid stuff and test all the limits? Yep, I hope so!
And here are some of the other search tools that Vladislav Golunov, creator of kiddle, seems to have created:
http://www.freakingnews.com/
http://www.dinotot.com/
http://www.stoodent.org/
http://www.fokk.org/
http://www.lukol.com/
And others….
These were listed on Vladislav Golunov’s facebook page on Feb 29th, they’re now gone from his facebook page. And most of the the urls redirect to google now.
Polly, EdSurge gave you and others a positive shout-out in their 3/1/16 edition.
“UPDATE March 1, 2016: Digging deeper, we’ve found scarce information on Kiddle’s parent company. A few sites have suggested that the creator is Vladislav Golunov, the founder of FreakingNews. Kiddle is also not the only tool of its kind—Kidrex and GoGooligans have been around for years. Hat tip to Polly-Alida Farrington and Frank Catalano, among others, for pointing us in the smarter direction.”
That’s great! 🙂
Some updates, I’m glad to see they’ve gotten rid of the judgemental ‘bad word’ message. It now says ‘try again’ when you enter something in the keyword stop-list’.,And you can now search for things like ‘breast cancer’ and ‘Moby Dick’, though ‘sperm whale’ is still a no-go. Sadly, a kid reaching out for some suicide help gets the same “try again” message. ‘I want to kill myself’ and other such searches need to have a helpful message and some hotline numbers. And alas, there seem to be even more ads now. Guess the ad-revenue #s are skyrocketing with all this press.
This article by Zoe Stavri is a really important read with more information on the dangers of using tools like this: https://stavvers.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/kiddle-a-search-engine-which-endangers-children/
Yes, safe search engines have been around for over a decade. Nothing new here. My kids use KidzSearch at school and also have it on their tablet as an app. Seems to provide better filtering with many more features too. See http://www.kidzsearch.com
Don’t forget about http://www.JuniorSafeSearch.com 🙂
A great safe search for kids accompanied by a mobile app as well.