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Child web safety - safe searching for kids.
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Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

[Replies: 23]
Hi I discovered this forum from the site safekids.com which, I think, all in all is a very good site to pick-up information with regards to the safety of children on the internet.
Being a parent myself and mother of 3 children aged 7,9 and 12 who are avid internet users.
One of my major concerns is preventing my children from accessing adult or adult related information when performing searches, as... I would presume, is a major concern for most parents.
I can appreciate that there is no substitute for a constant vigil while ones child is surfing the internet but on rare occasions this is sometimes not possible with 3 hyperactive kids like mine.

I have in place as many restrictions as possible to avoid my children accessing content I would not like them to see but was disappointed to find that the search box, included on the homepage of the safekids.com website was not all that safe!

Having entered the word "sex toys" returned results for all kinds of things I would rather not mention here and apparently this was with google safe search on.

So... Is Google safe search really that safe?

Shouldn't the word "sex" be removed from the text input?

I think you should be looking into this one Safekids.com as the words "sex toys" are not the only words which return results.

I have been conducting several searches myself to find a reputable search engine I can use as a default search engine for my kids and am also considering starting my own blog listing them and describing the advantages and disadvantages of each one, if there isn't one already!
Obviously time is a major factor for me doing this but hopefully one day I may get it off the ground.

I have currently checked out some of the following:

http://www.searchengines.com/kids/safe_searching_engines.html Which lists a small selection of Child safe engines. The Ask Jeeves (AJ for Kids) and Yahooligans being my favorite at the moment but even these have flaws.
These are Human edited directories so sites who maybe beneficial to children but do not include themselves would be overlooked.

In the meantime if anyone knows of a General Search Engine similar to the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN) which really can distinguish between a site for children or not, leave your comment.

Maybe I am being presumptuous in believing one exists and the only way to achieve such an engine is for it to be Human edited.
Last Post Apr 29, 2010 7:00 AM by: Mimmy23
Piffany
Posts: 6
From: Somerville, MA
Registered: 6/7/07
(9 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 26, 2007 5:44 PM
I think no more than say promoting a book or blog. Again we are building a search engine not selling one. I do think you want to foster communication between both content-providers (aggregators in our case) and the general web community. I don't think you should exclude people from posting just because they own a company. I am here because I am interested in changing the Internet for kids. I think my reply was a legitimate response to another users post.
olav
Posts: 39
From: Norway
Registered: 9/30/06
(8 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 26, 2007 5:28 PM
Who decided that the internet was a dangerous place ?


As so often before - whenever a new "gadget" does reach a certain popularity -
skeptics - tend to crawl out of the woodwork.
Most articles in media - most stories on the TV etc are written by journalists with very little first-hand knowledge about the subject.
A good example : close to 100% of the articles on social networking that are written here in Norway are stories about how dangerous Facebook is.
Why ? because FB is the only society they have logged in to.
We have two networking sites here - www.blink.no and www.nettby.no
This is where teens operate - and here is where racism,bullying etc really can be found.
This is where pics of teenagers are posted. (Their parents would probably freak out if they knew.)
But - since these sites are owned by Norway's two largest newspapers - there are never any references to these. NOR is www.lunarstorm.se known to adults. (And Sweden is just an hour away !)

My point is : MEDIA decides where we should direct our anger and fears - based on a lousy research. Of course - there are human tragedies related to networking societies .

But - then again : following common sense - the chances of encountering a predator is slimmer than being struck by lightning.
There is a tiny risk that you can be hurt by lightning - but do you stay indoors - just in case ?]:)
Anne
Posts: 507
Registered: 6/26/06
(7 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 26, 2007 3:32 PM
Hmm, David, it's good to get some background on this new business, but this looks a lot like advertising (see Community Rule No. 7). Feel free to argue with me. All best,
Anne
--
Anne Collier
ConnectSafely co-director
Piffany
Posts: 6
From: Somerville, MA
Registered: 6/7/07
(6 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 26, 2007 3:23 PM
Hi all,
Just wanted to put in a plug for my search engine (kids.piffany.com). This is exactly our mission. We are developing a search engine like the big 3 that allows kids to adjust the difficulty level of the returned search results. We are just get started so please be patient as new features are added. I would love to get as much feedback as possible on what to implement, what to throw away, etc.

A little about who i am: I am the parent of a teenage daughter. I don't want to go into details, but she has a lot of problems that I believe were exacerbated by the Internet. I made Piffany partly because of problems with the Internet that I saw through my daughters experience, and partly because I saw a business opportunity.

I strongly encourage you to send me (david@piffany.com) any suggestions or ideas you have for bringing the full potential of the Internet to kids. There is a lot of lip service on this issue, but I am really trying to do something about it.
Anne
Posts: 507
Registered: 6/26/06
(5 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 17, 2007 11:47 AM
Well, just by posting you're now a member, mubarak. Could you tell us if people do online social networking in Ghana? Do they use Bebo or MySpace or Xanga or Facebook, etc., etc.? I would love to know if there's a social site unique to Ghana that was started there, like LunarStorm in Sweden or Mixi.jp in Japan. Thank you,
Anne
--
Anne Collier
ConnectSafely co-director
mubarak
Posts: 1
From: Ghana
Registered: 7/16/07
(4 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 17, 2007 10:53 AM
i want 2 be a member of this site.
Anne
Posts: 507
Registered: 6/26/06
(3 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 15, 2007 2:49 PM
lorraine5014, my experience as a mom has been that the SafeSearch features on the search engines that have them work very well. Did you have strict or moderate filtering set? If the former, which is the setting our kids use because of a rule to that effect in our house, I doubt you'd have any problem. The big IF is whether the kids are compliant with a rule that says no settings get changed and other search engines aren't used. A noncompliant kid can simply use a different search engine that doesn't have a filtering feature.

Some parents use filtering software (or operating-system-level filtering such as Vista's), which generally (filters are not without flaws) blocks the downloading of any page with content you tell it to block (e.g., violence, hate, sex, nudity, illegal substances, etc.), including stuff that makes it through a filtered search engine. This is really individual family choice, and solutions often need to change as kids grow up, of course. If you're looking for filtering or other parental-control tools, check out the pretty comprehensive searchable database of these at GetNetWise.org.

fuzzybutton, I definitely understand your question about what's the worst thing kids can encounter on the Web, and I think that too depends on the kid and the parent. Many parents will probably tell you that the worst thing for their kids has been exposure to bullying peers, others online porn, and others exposure to "predators," but I think a lot of American parents overexposed to shows like Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" need to know that the odds are against their teen encountering that last risk - unless the child has a history of seeking out risk or danger. Thank you both for posting. I hope there's something relevant in all the above to you.
Anne
--
Anne Collier
ConnectSafely co-director

fuzzybutton
Posts: 71
Registered: 9/10/06
(2 of 24)

Re: Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 15, 2007 10:44 AM
I did a little experiment, I searched 'sex toys' with the google safesearch on. The first ten results were nothing special. Reports on sex toys, and places to buy them. With the safesearch on the first two pages are websites selling, and websites with reports on the aforementioned item. I even found an interesting article! [Sex toys are banned in Alabama, but guns are ok, ooh..] I found no pornography, within in the first few pages, what are you getting quite so worked up about? If there's nothing good in the first few pages most kids are bound to search for something else.

Why should sex be removed from the text input? What if a child wants to find information about safe sex? What about sex in the context of gender?

How can a computer tell what's exactly safe? At my school, the word eros was banned from input, but oh lucky me! I was researching Eros, the GREEK GOD.

Is sex the worst thing you think your child can be exposed to?

--
:B
lorraine5014
Posts: 1
From: UK
Registered: 7/14/07
(1 of 24)

Child web safety - safe searching for kids.

Jul 14, 2007 10:01 AM
Hi I discovered this forum from the site safekids.com which, I think, all in all is a very good site to pick-up information with regards to the safety of children on the internet.
Being a parent myself and mother of 3 children aged 7,9 and 12 who are avid internet users.
One of my major concerns is preventing my children from accessing adult or adult related information when performing searches, as... I would presume, is a major concern for most parents.
I can appreciate that there is no substitute for a constant vigil while ones child is surfing the internet but on rare occasions this is sometimes not possible with 3 hyperactive kids like mine.

I have in place as many restrictions as possible to avoid my children accessing content I would not like them to see but was disappointed to find that the search box, included on the homepage of the safekids.com website was not all that safe!

Having entered the word "sex toys" returned results for all kinds of things I would rather not mention here and apparently this was with google safe search on.

So... Is Google safe search really that safe?

Shouldn't the word "sex" be removed from the text input?

I think you should be looking into this one Safekids.com as the words "sex toys" are not the only words which return results.

I have been conducting several searches myself to find a reputable search engine I can use as a default search engine for my kids and am also considering starting my own blog listing them and describing the advantages and disadvantages of each one, if there isn't one already!
Obviously time is a major factor for me doing this but hopefully one day I may get it off the ground.

I have currently checked out some of the following:

http://www.searchengines.com/kids/safe_searching_engines.html Which lists a small selection of Child safe engines. The Ask Jeeves (AJ for Kids) and Yahooligans being my favorite at the moment but even these have flaws.
These are Human edited directories so sites who maybe beneficial to children but do not include themselves would be overlooked.

In the meantime if anyone knows of a General Search Engine similar to the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN) which really can distinguish between a site for children or not, leave your comment.

Maybe I am being presumptuous in believing one exists and the only way to achieve such an engine is for it to be Human edited.
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