Parents' Guide to

KidzSearch.com

By Erin Brereton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Mostly safe kid-focused search engine packs many ads, flaws.

Website http://www.kidzsearch.com
KidzSearch.com Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this website.

Community Reviews

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age 9+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Lejing
Lejing Parent of 8 and 8-year-old
December 21, 2015
age 8+

Best Safe Search Available

They have the best filtering system available that combines google safe search with their own extra layer of filtering. My kids love their safe radio, games and other features. The autocomplete focused on what kids often search for is very useful. If I find any iffy content they have a link to easily report it and they promptly respond to any questions . Nothing is perfect, but this is the best solution I found to keep my kids safe online.

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emily71
emily71 Parent of 9 and 11-year-old
July 25, 2015
age 9+

Excellent Resource for Kids

After exploring many different kid-friendly search engines, we found KidzSearch to be the best overall in terms of providing safety while also giving access to the widest amount of content. It absolutely filters porn, which is a big concern. However, if you really try and search hard enough, you may find some pg-13 stuff, but in order to block that you would need to use a watered down search site with very limited content, and that was just not going to work for us. Our kids LOVE the KidzTube feature and all the great learning videos it provides. They also get a lot of use from the homework help forum.

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What’s It About?

KIDZSEARCH.COM adds another layer to Google's Safe Search option, promising to deliver K–12-appropriate results devoid of any adult content. The site, which has a partnership with Google, removes some sites from its results based on input from the KidzSearch.com community, composed of thousands of public and private schools. The site also offers auto-suggest keywords, based on terms kids enter, to help direct them to the most relevant scholastic content.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (6):

KidzSearch.com's search engine is its biggest selling point, but the site also offers a good amount of content. Most of the content featured (videos, games, and some other items) is curated from other sites, but there's some original content as well, including informational articles on geography, science, and other topics. More direct, concise instructions on the Boolify Boolean Graphic page, for example, would help kids understand what they're about to do. The site design also is fairly simple; it's text-heavy, and the graphics aren't overly impressive. But the amount of ads that show up on some pages is a bigger distraction. Actual search engine results show up halfway down the page because Google ads are listed first, and kids will see large ads on top of the Pictures and Music pages. Furthermore, some of the site content seems directed toward adults; there's no explanation as to why some articles referencing alcohol bypass the strict content blocking on the site.

Overall, though, there's some good stuff on KidzSearch.com. The search engine capabilities alone are a reason for checking it out. It's unlikely that kids will never see anything iffy, which the site recognizes; its About Us section encourages parents to try to get offensive search results and let administrators know, so they can block the terms or websites. But chances are that kids are safer looking up topics on KidzSearch.com than they would be on many other search sites.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about using search engines to find information online. Why would a site that screens the results be better to use than other search engines?

  • Search engines often provide a bunch of options, some of which may not be legit. How can you tell if a website is a valid source of information?

  • Discuss the difference between opinion and fact. Which signs might indicate something on a website is someone's thought as opposed to something factual?

Website Details

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