Summer…School’s Out…Kids Home

It’s summer, school’s out, kids are home and……..on the computer?  Should you be concerned?  The question doesn’t even need to be asked. 

Your Child Goes Online to Look Up a Word 

• Maybe they can’t spell the word
• Their choice of a search engine is not safe
• They don’t know about using quotation marks
• Or how being specific in a word search counts 

All of the mentioned issues can take your child to a place with inappropriate content.  An example would be a child typing in ‘pictures of animals‘ and it shows violent dog fights or porn.

What Can You Do?

Find and Use Child Safe Search Engines:  Yahoo Kids, and Fact Monster have specifically friendly services for children.  You can find more here.

Be Specific in Word Choices:  Instead of searching for “soccer games” use the words “World Cup”.

Use Quotation Marks:  Researching a name that’s not famous or well known?  Use quotation marks to narrow the search.

Word Spelling:  Yes, it matters.  Sometimes the search engine can figure out what you meant.  You may have to help your child as the misspelling can be so ‘far out’ that it confuses the search engine. 

They Will Need Your Help

Are your children following your search habits and engines?  Do you use a Kid-Friendly search engine for them?  Do you have your child filters turned on?  Leave a comment for us!