A new search engine powered by Google Safe Search has recently been launched aimed specifically for children.
The internet can often be a dark place, and many parents have concerns that their children may stumble across something they shouldn’t while conducting an innocent search. As a result, Kiddle has been created in an attempt to ease these qualms.
The search engine has been powered by search giant Google and its ‘Safe Search’ mode, but is not an official product of the company. The site uses the colours of the iconic search engine and, instead of the usual white background, it has adopted an outer space theme and uses a friendly robot as its mascot and advisor.
All search results in Kiddle are filtered so that they only show sites deemed to be safe and suitable for a young audience. As well as this, descriptions are written in a more simplified language for ease of understanding.
Should an unsuitable or adult-themed search be conducted, the search engine will display a new screen with the robot mascot advising that it is unsuitable and to try another search. For example, a search for Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson brought up the following message.
The search engine has already come under some criticism from a number of organisations, including the LGBT community, because of some of its restrictions. The BBC reported that the site had blocked a number of words relating to this community because the site could not “guarantee the safety” of the results. This has since been overturned by the site and has now filtered the results to show useful pages, such as tips for coming out.
When questioned about how the site filters its results, a spokesperson said that all search results are put through its team of editors who handpick and check results. As the site is still in its early days, there have been a few search anomalies and the odd unsuitable search getting through, but these issues are expected to be overcome once the site is fully up and running with set guidance in place.
Already, the site has successfully filtered results to become more child friendly. The Daily Mail demonstrated these successes by comparing search results from Kiddle and Google for narcotics slang terms.
Ensuring that your website has safe, suitable and relevant content is one of the key factors to appearing at the top of any search engine’s search results. Online marketing agencies such as Engage Web can help businesses to achieve this so that they are more searchable online.
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RT @EngageWeb: Child-friendly search engine launched: https://t.co/PCAjRfNZle