Finding a good search engine for children can be a struggle but here is one that seems better than most to Phil Bradley.
Kiddle (http://kiddle.co/)
works by filtering results by site and word. They try to ensure that
the first three results have been chosen by their editors, the next few
pull results from content on safe and trusted sites that are written to
appeal to children. [The rest of the sites come from Google safe search,
so while they may not be appropriate in language, there should be no
inappropriate sites.]
It uses big thumbnails on its results page and a large Arial font.
Google adverts are displayed as well but these seem to have been vetted.
Inappropriate
content seems to be screened out by blocking certain words, but this
inadvertently also blocks terms children may search for (e.g. blue
tits).
Information presented is of good quality and
appropriate for children to learn from. The results of a search on 'how
to self harm' addressed the issue sensibly and from the viewpoint of not
harming.
While sexual terminology is blocked, there
appears to be no block on words such as 'murder', 'shooting', 'bombing',
'revolver' and 'handgun' (though 'gun' itself was blocked).
There are search options for the web, images, news and videos.
The content seems to be for age 10 and above - but you should check this out yourself.
Phil Bradley in CILIP Update, February 2016
