RSSA kid-safe service scours the Web for good content
By Michael Hatamoto | Published March 20, 2008, 9:00 AM
A new service aims to enable kids to browse the Internet while also keeping them safe. Although it's joining an already crowded market for fun and education, KidZui hopes its own browser will differentiate it from the competition.
KidZui is designed for children between the ages of 3 and 12 who can use the service to have access to more than 500,000 Web sites that have already been deemed to be "child appropriate." Rather than offer yet another online environment where kids can socialize, KidZui is based on a whitelist -- a catalog of web sites that were individually checked by human beings.
Before publicly launching, the service was beta tested by 8,000 children and parents, who helped discover some of the pros and cons of using the service. More than 200 parents and teachers were hired to help look at and rate different online materials.
Parents must first create an account through the service, then children may create an individual account and avatar for them to use. If a user tries to view content outside of the KidZui whitelist, the management team is notified so the Web site can be reviewed. Some 200 parents and teachers are responsible for deciding what sites outside of KidZui are appropriate or inappropriate.
The KidZui staff said it is possible and not uncommon for approval to happen in a matter of hours, though conceivably it could take longer.
"While we don't promise a 'FedEx' guarantee, this is not empty marketing talk," KidZui CEO Clifford Boro told BetaNews. "We have had more than 200 editors working for KidZui, in 25 states, and it is essential that we continue to expand KidZui's content daily. Our system takes aggregate kids-search and usage, and makes sure that our editors expand into content that kids care about. Our subscription model will allow us to continue to invest in adding content."
Launching Web sites and services for children is becoming a lucrative business, as sites such as Disney's Club Penguin and Ganz's Webkinz offer a safe, controlled environment for children to interact and play games with one another while online. Most of these services have limited interactivity by design, especially to protect youths from impostors. Meanwhile, the rest of the Internet can be awfully tempting, and keeping kids from testing the waters can be difficult for parents unless they keep very, very close watch over their browser.
It helps if the browser has tight controls and restrictions, and that's where KidZui makes its strongest value proposition.
For new users, KidZui is being offered at a reduced price of $4.95 per month, or $49.95 per year, with typical subscription fees set at $9.95 per month. Parents can also take advantage of a 30-day free trial period.
I think that something like this is good. Even if you're a good parent, a youngster might visit a site that seems and sounds innocuous (like cinderella.com), and be met with something wholly inappropriate. I agree that nothing is 100%, but something like KidZui coupled with good parenting and solid education will help protect kids from accidental blunders, predators, and peer influence in the wrong direction. Oh...and in regards to the Linkin Park comment...I don't see why they wouldn't be viewable by 9 year olds...surely no adults listen to their "music". Seriously, kids listen to some odd music, so long as the video imagery and the lyrical content aren't inappropriate, I fail to see the issue.
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|I have done basically the same thing using Browser Bob to create a personal browser for my 8 year old and my 12 year old. It has no address bar, only buttons with links to pre-approved sites.
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|I'm always curious to hear how parents monitor what their children do while on the Internet.
The first music video my brother could access through KidZui was a Linkin Park video, which I found interesting. Although it didn't have any bad words or overly troublesome content, I would imagine Linkin Park videos wouldn't be approved for a child who is nine years old.
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|I'd like a service like this for adults. Something that searches around the porn, ads, stores, dead sites, and news to find actual "content".
“We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” — Rutherford D. Rogers
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|Garbage! at a price. How about parents just be a good parents and pay attention to what sites your kids are visiting.
There will never ever be a "Babysitting" piece of software that is 100% fool proof.
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|"How about parents just be a good parents and pay attention to what sites your kids are visiting."
Spoken like a person that has yet to have children in the digital age.
It's not always possible with the insane availability of internet connection options today. For instance, my 11 yr old daughter can use multiple computers at the library, her school, friends' houses, her cell phone, etc. Only the ones available at her school are strictly monitored. Aside from that, none of the other options don't even come close to offering parental controls.
Now, as a tech professional myself, I know how to control what my daughter sees and accesses here at home, but outside of that, it's damn near impossible without literally following her around day and night.
Have you ever tried to follow a pre-teen through her daily life?
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|I agree with both here, lets revise DynamicLink's statement to read "How about parents just be a good parents and educate your kids so they don't get into trouble."
If you instill good values in your kids in the first place you won't have to worry about them because when they find the bad sites online then they'll click away from them. All you can really do is hope they listen to you.
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|Your eleven-yr. old daughter has a cell phone..with internet?? Buddy, you just proved the 'good parenting' commenter 100% right.
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|She got my wife's cell phone as a hand-me-down and it was loaded with everything from Verizon. I have since fixed it, but I can't be the only one around that has made that mistake.
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|LMAO
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|I can tell how many of you have kids. My son had a cell phone since he was 8. It is very nice to have a phone in your youngsters hands when they happen to wander off.
I don't know if his phone has internet so I must be a bad parent by your standards. I also let him use a computer to serf the internet without watching what he does. When I do check the sites he visited, I am not shocked to see that he visited kids sites. Imagine that, 9 year olds do not visit porn sites.
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