Search Engine is basically a tool which provides the facility to search for information on the World Wide Web, based on some keywords typed. The Search Engine Result Page (SERP) will list out all the web pages where that keywords were found with the most relevant web pages first, and the rest in descending order of importance to the user.
As Search Engines work based on pre-written algorithms that allow them to rank the relevant web pages, there is no guarantee that all web pages listed will be ‘G’ rated and designed keeping children in mind. Even the ‘adult filter’ feature provided by the search engines isn’t perfect and 100 percent successful to keep out explicit content. So, in-order to filter out sites that are inappropriate for kids, some search engines have been created that cater specifically for children and are well deserved to be called as “Kid-Safe Search Engines”.
The Kid-Safe Search Engines generally exclude sites or web-pages that deal with adult content, violence, hateful, harmful, gambling and drug use etc., These search engines don’t search the entire Word Wide Web for results instead look into only those sites that have been reviewed and handpicked by parents, teachers or librarians and are considered to include appropriate content for children.
Yahoo! Kids (kids.yahoo.com/) is the major browsable, searchable directory for children wherein all the sites and web pages listed will be carefully checked and hand-picked by YAHOO! Inc. staff who are specially trained editors and ensure all the content and links included are appropriate for children.
Yahoo! Kids also include many fun features, including Yahoo! Kids Games, Sports, and News pages, Movies, Animals, Science, and Dinosaurs etc.,
Ask Kids, which is formerly known as Ask Jeeves for Kids, is a kid-friendly search engine and fun destination site designed exclusively for children aged 6-12.
Each web page indexed by Ask Kids search is based on advanced filtering technology and selections made by experienced Ask.com human editorial team and are fully child-appropriate.
KidsClick! Web Search (www.kidsclick.org/) is designed with children in mind and is backed by librarians. It is owned and run by the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Kent State University. KidsClick lists web sites in various categories and you can also search various subjects by letter.
Awesome Library (www.awesomelibrary.org/) provides only high quality resources mostly recommended by teachers, students, parents, or librarian that are strictly reviewed for child-safe content.
LITTLE EXPLORERS (www.littleexplorers.com) is a product of EnchantedLearning.com that uses a picture-dictionary format to link to hundreds of carefully chosen child-friendly sites around the world.