SEARCH ENGINES FOR CHILDREN

by Rowena Namoca, Nancy Willis, and Craig Cunningham

	Teaching Guide	Final Activity
	Conducting your search	Glossary
	Search Tools	Home

        1. providing a safe environment and keeping children from accessing material that is not psychologically age appropriate.

        2. providing materials that are "kid-friendly" and are appropriate for their student or child's reading and ability level.

    There are several good search engines that have been created specifically with children in mind.

Here is a list of some of the most popular search engines for children. Take a look at these sites by clicking on their URL's. They will open in a new window. Close that window to return here.

Ask Jeeves for Kids
http://ajkids.com/

Super Snooper
http://www.supersnooper.com/

One Key
http://onekey.com/live/index.htm

Yahooligans
http://www.yahooligans.com/

Remember that although you may have your students search the web through a search engine designed for children, there is no perfect guarantee that your students will not be able to access inappropriate material.  The best policy is establishing clear acceptable use rules for the internet, talking with children about what is acceptable and not acceptable access, and close, continuous teacher or parent supervision.  Computers should be placed in a visible area in the classroom, so that all screens can be easily monitored by the adult in charge.

One last word about child access

Kid-safe search engines do not eliminate commercial sites, and it is important to remember that children are easily influenced by the advertising they are exposed to on the web, just as they are in other forms of media exposure.  In school settings it is important to talk with students about the impact of advertising on their choice making and to set clear limits as to what commercial sites are and are not acceptable to access.

It is often best to guide children away from sites whose URL's contain the abbreviation ".com" which implies commercial sites.  These sites need to be looked at closely before being used with students.  It is usually better to steer students to sites whose URL's signify connections that relate to:

                                                .gov (government)
                                                .edu (education)
                                                .org (organization)
 
 

Before you go on take a look at a site that recommends different search engines for different types of searches.  Check it out by clicking here.