Parents' Guide to Bing

Bing Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

By Carla Thornton , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 15+

Excellent search engine with really poor protections.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 12+

Based on 18 parent reviews

age 8+

Based on 66 kid reviews

Kids say that the website has mixed reviews regarding its suitability for children's use; while some users believe it functions well as a search engine and can be used safely with supervision, others are concerned about explicit content slipping through even with safety features enabled. Many reviews emphasize the importance of monitoring children's internet usage rather than blaming the search engine itself, suggesting that responsible parental oversight can mitigate potential risks.

  • safety concerns
  • parental supervision
  • mixed effectiveness
  • explicit content
  • general search engine
Summarized with AI

Privacy Rating Warning

  • Personal information is not sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • User's information is used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Data profiles are created and used for personalised advertisements.

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?

Our review:
Parents say ( 18 ):
Kids say ( 66 ):

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

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

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