Kid-Safe Searching

I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for a search engine that will provide ONLY safe search results for my students.  I cannot stand over the shoulders of 23 kids to confirm that what they are looking at is appropriate, and I'm always concerned about exposing them to things they do not need to be exposed to.  I was therefore thrilled when one of Diigo's Daily Updates brought me a page called "Five Safe Search Engines for Kids".  I decided to check out these search engines to see how kid-friendly they were. 

The first search engine listed was Ask Kids.  I've used this engine before, and I have to say that out of the five, to me, this seems like the best choice.  Ask Kids has a kid-friendly appearance and draws the majority of its results from websites specifically for kids.  The only problem I've found with this is that when students are researching certain topics, if there are not enough kid-friendly websites with information on the topic, then there are few results.  Overall though, I found this search engine to be the most kid-friendly and the safest.

Searchy Pants, Mymunka, Kidzsearch, and KidRex are other search engines that are supposed to be specifically for kids.   They all appear to be powered by Google, though, and when students type in the topic they are looking for, many advertisements are in the results.  When I typed in the word "salmon", those four search engines brought back recipes, the names of school districts, and other unimportant, unrelated information about salmon (the fish).  Ask Kids did not bring back any of these search items.

This is not to say that Ask Kids is the only search engine that is worthwhile.  The other search engines are most likely very safe for kids. And they are also probably very helpful when looking for a lot of information about a particular topic.  But if you are looking for a good search engine for younger kids who have trouble assessing the validity of resources, Ask Kids would be a good choice.

Check out some other search engines for kids so you can decide which you like best!