How Safe Are Kids Online?

I always want to believe my son doesn’t need or know how to surf the internet yet; Teni is 4 years old and likes to play games on my phone or tab. It’s incredible to see how he and other kids his age navigate their way through the features on our gadgets without being taught.

I’ve also seen the way my friends’ older kids handle computer games, I wonder if they teach them in school but I have come to realize that while you are thinking your toddler/preschooler knows nothing about computers yet, don’t be surprised at what they can do and sooner than later they will start getting assignments from school that involve them using internet search engines. This is the computer age!

So, am I worried kids may be exposed to the internet sooner than they should? Yes, in fact, I constantly worry about my kids using the computer too early and the dangers of exposing them to the internet. Even though under my supervision, I know the games my son plays and the sites that catch his attention. I’ve seen different adverts pop up begging to be clicked while they are playing a game online, they may likely stumble upon and click adverts that could lead to inappropriate sites. With a lot of things going on online now, parents need to pay more attention to what their kids do with computer gadgets and surf on the internet.

Also lately, I saw on Facebook a picture of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg and a kid with this caption by Zuckerberg: This is Tayo. He is 11 and he recently showed me a game he built called Spike Rush. I got my first computer when I was Tayo’s age, and just like him I started out coding games. I’ve always thought building simple games was the gateway to building more complex apps. My first games were simpler than Tayo’s, but no matter your level, there’s nothing like playing something you built yourself.

He added that Spike Rush is available on iOS App Store and that he is looking forward to seeing what Tayo builds next.

Image Credit: Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg

Apart from computer games, especially with school homework and projects, our kids cannot imagine a world without the computer and the internet. Now, the issue is parents are faced with the mixed concern of the dangers and benefits of the internet and technology in general because these days, the internet is an undeniable part of everyday life and separating kids and the computer is a persistent battle in most households. How does one keep kids safe online? How young is too young to start using the computer?

Kiddle, launched earlier this year may just be the solution to keep kids on check while searching for information online. it is an edited search engine that uses google custom search. Though not owned by google, kiddle enables kids to do a web search of news, images or video without accidentally pulling up things they can’t comprehend or anything they are not supposed to be exposed to at their age.

Kiddle is kids friendly, written in big size arial fonts and feature lots of illustrations with large thumbnails so it will be attractive to kids. The search is filtered and only links of websites with kids’ trusted contents are featured. A search query entered into the box will be blocked showing an error message if it recognizes any word not suitable for kids.

Kids, we know are very curious and it is really important to shine our eyes on the sites they visit on the internet as there are so many things that happen online these days, cyber bullying, nudity, etc.

I entered the word ‘sex’ and this is the result below:

Image credit: kiddle.co

Have you ever used kiddle? If you have, do you think parents have finally found the solution to online safety for kids? Do you think parents can rest their minds and stop hovering over our kids to get a sneak peek on their online activity if they use this search engine instead of google? Please share your thoughts.

Yours truly,

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