Common Sense Media Review
Excellent search engine with really poor protections.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
Microsoft claims its search engine, Bing, is better than market leader Google because it uses a \"decision engine\" to help people make more informed choices. Bing's best-known feature so far is \"smart motion,\" a preview mode for video search results. Simply hovering a mouse lets users see and hear videos inside thumbnails without leaving Bing.
Is It Any Good?
Bing is fast and boasts some whiz-bang features, such as a search history. Bing really does make some decisions easier. However, some parents will think Bing is a tad too good at searching the Internet. Unlike other search engines, Bing pops up a dialog box whenever it finds adult content and asks if the user would like to turn off the Safe Search feature. (Google and Yahoo bury this setting on a preferences page.) The result? Even computer novices can easily disable the built-in filter and get an eyeful by passing the cursor over Bing's live video thumbnails. As one of the most popular search engines out there, it's pretty much expected kids will find themselves on Bing at one time or another. Parents can protect kids by installing filtering programs on home computers and enabling parent controls on kids' computer Web browsers.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about sex before kids see it in action on the Web, which has for some time now been rife with free, hard-core porn; Bing just makes it easier to find. Self respect, disease, pregnancy and parents' personal beliefs can all be a part of the discussion.
Periodically ask your kids to show you what they've found online that they like. Showing that you're interested in the good stuff they've been finding may mean they're more comfortable coming to you if something on a site bothers them. Make sure kids know to check in if they see something that's hateful, pornographic, or violent.
Website Details
- Genre : Educational
- Pricing structure : Free
- Last updated : January 20, 2022
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