‘Kiddle’ – The New Child-Friendly Search Engine

Kiddle: A New Child-Friendly Search Engine Launched

This week, a new child-friendly search engine called Kiddle has been launched, offering a safer browsing experience tailored specifically for kids. While Kiddle resembles Google in many ways, it is not affiliated with the tech giant. The search engine operates through a Google Custom Search bar but has additional layers of safety designed to protect young users.

Kiddle’s logo shares Google’s iconic colour scheme, but the website adopts an outer-space theme, complete with a guard robot that blocks any attempts to search for inappropriate content. The design of the site feels familiar, yet distinctly kid-focused.

How Kiddle Works

All search queries on Kiddle are automatically filtered using Google Safe Search. The results are carefully curated to ensure child-appropriate content. For popular searches, many results are handpicked and approved by Kiddle editors, adding an extra level of safety. Here’s how the search results are categorized:

1. The first three results are kid-friendly websites, written specifically for children.
2. The next four results feature sites with content written in simple language, suitable for younger audiences.
3. Subsequent results are written for adults but are still filtered through Google Safe Search, ensuring inappropriate content is blocked.

Kid-Friendly Design

Kiddle’s interface is designed with children in mind. It uses a large Arial font to enhance readability, and big thumbnails accompany each search result, making it easier for children to scan and select the most relevant information. According to Kiddle, thumbnails provide visual cues, particularly helpful for younger users who may not read as quickly as adults.

Protecting Privacy

To further ensure a safe experience, Kiddle deletes its search logs every 24 hours and does not collect any personally identifiable information. This commitment to privacy makes Kiddle a safer alternative for children who are beginning to explore the internet.

There’s also a “site blocking request” form available for parents, allowing them to report and block any inappropriate content they may find in Kiddle’s search results. Kiddle editors then review these requests to improve the site’s safety measures.

Room for Improvement

Despite Kiddle’s child-focused filtering, it’s not yet perfect. For instance, certain celebrity searches like “Pamela Anderson” and “Paris Hilton” are blocked due to the risk of adult content. However, searches for other celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus—whose results could also lead to inappropriate content—are still allowed, raising concerns about the consistency of Kiddle’s filtering system.

Sky News also reported an issue where a search for “rabbit” surfaced a news story about a rabbit being killed by a Danish radio host. These examples highlight that while Kiddle offers a safer browsing environment than other search engines, it still has areas that need refinement.

What It Means for Website Owners

For website owners, the emergence of Kiddle doesn’t demand a new SEO strategy, as Kiddle’s searches are powered by Google. However, it underscores the importance of optimizing your website for Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and staying current with the changing SEO landscape.

Matrix can optimize your website for search engines!