If you have children old enough to attempt to spell or are well past those years, the Internet and search engines are things you’ve grown accustom to watching as closely as you do when they were running and climbing on playgrounds.

Recently, a new search engine launched which takes a step toward improving Internet safety. The child-friendly search engine, Kiddle, is designed to ease parents’ worry about things their children may be exposed to online, making surfing the web “friendly” for kids. Unlike Google or Bing, Kiddle has editors who manage the top search results a user sees on the page in combination with info it serves up from a tool called Google Safe Search in order to deliver content that is as kid-appropriate as possible.

It’s worth noting the URL is kiddle.co - not kiddle.com. And though Kiddle’s homepage resembles Google to some degree, the engine is not a product of Google or affiliated in any way, despite early confusion in the press and on social media.

From its robot and outer space-themed homepage to the purpose of the engine, it’s great to see companies like Kiddle and others take steps toward providing safe and age-appropriate environments online for kids. According to research from KidSay, as young as age eight, approximately 40% of boys and girls access the Internet multiple times a day. Data from Pew Research shows this skyrockets to 92% along kids ages 13-17, who go online at least once daily. Among all Internet users, search engines and social networks are the most common sites visited online, with gaming, videos and social networks among the top online activities for kids and teens. With the amount of kids who have connectivity and access to the Internet on desktop or from mobile devices, Internet safety is not only an important topic, but an important reality. Its significance will only continue to increase as tech, mobile and digital services become a greater part of life as we know it.

Teenagers and younger kids are apt to know about or use Kiddle because parents tell them about it or by word of mouth from a friend, so it will be interesting to see if the engine trends and catches kids’ attention. Kiddle’s heaviest usage will be when a parent is sitting alongside their child researching topics for homework or to satisfy their curiosity about a subject like clouds, what our organs look like, anything having to do with Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen, or a kid’s favorite baseball team.

Most pre-teens and teenagers who spend time online, though, have access to social media, which can open the vault for endless curiosity and discovery. In fact, 71% of teens who go online use more than one social media network. So how do Kiddle’s search results fare with trending topics on social media?

We took Kiddle for a test run and for the most part, the filtered results are family-friendly, and in a few cases, blocked. The user will begin to see a commonality of sites content is pulled from - Common Sense Media, Biography and others; visually, they’ll also have an experience similar to that of Google and other search engines. Whether or not the search results are relevant will be subjective to each user or parent, but from our experience, it’s an area with room for improvement by this new company.

Here’s what we saw:

Trending on Twitter: #BestFirstDateQuestions

Kiddle did a good job at not providing examples when searching for #BestFirstDateQuestions, a hashtag trending on Twitter. In fact, “no results” was the response we got. There was one paid ad, however, along the right side of the page was for an urgent care facility in Michigan. The lack of results and subject of the paid ad are the first hints that relevancy may be an issue with the kid-friendly engine -- which might be peace of mind to some, but make others jump ship pretty quickly. Breaking up the hashtag into four words, the top three search results of a search for “Best First Date Questions” delivered: Q&A about the Constitution of the United States, a page about government career advice and managing your career like a first date, and an FAQ about Girl Scout Cookies on girlscouts.org.

At time of press, #BestFirstDateQuestions is the #3 trending topic in the U.S. on Twitter. Relevant results and happy users on Kiddle? You can be the judge.

Trending on Instagram: fashion and #like4like

Two of the top trending themes on Instagram at the time of print are #fashion and #like4like. Unlike an image search on Google that is flooded with modern-day, colorful fashion images, an image search for “fashion” on Kiddle returned a mashup of historic and modern day fashion results, with much of the content coming from the celebrity biography and story site, Bio. Similar to the experience on Google, however, your child isn’t served paid ads while searching images.

As for #like4like? The hashtag has little conversational meaning, other than suggesting if a person likes your post, you have to like theirs back. Given #like4like is the #2 trending hashtag on Instagram, it was worthy of a test on Kiddle. The result? One listing for Goodyear Tires. Underwhelming for someone hoping to learn more about its meaning or discover what’s trending, but on the flip side, peace of mind for parents that Kiddle, unlike other search engines, is not delivering real-time social media feeds in its search results, preventing your child from seeing potentially inappropriate social chatter.

Trending on Facebook: Amy Schumer

A search on Kiddle for Amy Schumer returned carefully-chosen results, focusing on her bio and a few interviews. Paid ads Kiddle pulls through its integrated Google tool include Amazon to watch her stand-up shows, and places to buy show tickets or pre-order her book. Over on Google, however, the same search serves up the comedian’s website, social accounts, social mentions, mainstream articles and more.

Trending on Snapchat: One Direction

They move hearts, they break hearts, one of them even left the band. Parents of teens and pre-teens are no stranger British-Irish boy band One Direction. And if your teen uses Snapchat, chances are they’ve seen their snaps or stories. Among lists of celebs to follow on Snapchat, One Direction is often in the top 10. Rest assured, if your kid is entering hearth-throb age and searches for One Direction on Kiddle, they’ll find a few articles and mostly biographical information bio.com and kid-friendly sites. (And not surprisingly, a paid ad to download One Direction’s music from Google Play).

Final Thoughts

We weren’t successful in breaking Kiddle, and if your child is looking for the most recent photo or trend that “broke the Internet,” chances are they won’t find it on Kiddle either. The experienced searcher or determined student might be frustrated by its limited search results with sometimes questionable relevancy. It also seems Kiddle has little control over the paid ads that appear on the right side of the page. In most most cases the ads weren’t inappropriate, but in general they were not kid-friendly or even computer-friendly at times. Therefore, it’s a good idea for parents to continue to supervise online activity and where kids click.

The Internet is a valuable resource for information and entertainment to be enjoyed while practicing Internet safety. Until more companies like Kiddle innovate to create appealing age-appropriate forums or take steps to ensure a safer environment for kids online, the biggest responsibility starts at home. Like healthy habits or fitness, digital responsibility is a lifestyle important to educate kids about starting at a young age, and for parents to lead by example with throughout their teenage years.

by Stacy Kania

With the start of a new year, many people take the time to reflect, make changes and set goals for themselves. For parents, it may mean examining how you approach being a “digital parent,” or parenting in the digital age.

When it comes to kids and technology, are you hands-on, hands-off, or somewhere in between? What is your recipe for success?

In the article “Parents: Reject Technology Shaming,” published in The Atlantic, author Alexandra Samuel references three types of digital parenting styles identified through survey data collected from 10,000 parents in North America.

Digital Enablers - Parents who give their kids carte blanche in terms of tech consumption. They give their kids complete freedom with technology.

Digital Limiters - Parents who impose strict boundaries on tech consumption and always have their hand near the off switch.

Digital Mentors - Parents who take an active role in guiding their child through the world of technology. They realize that tech isn’t going away, and if they don’t provide the necessary navigation, they aren’t preparing their child for the future.

Samuel’s perspective is that the recipe for success is to be a Digital Mentor to your children.

“This is an approach to digital-age parenting that can actually sustain a family long-term, from the time baby first lays her hands on a touchscreen all the way until she heads off for college.”

— Alexandra Samuel

How can we as parents, who didn’t grow up with this magnitude of technology, MENTOR our kids?

Keep the conversations….conversational

In a recent discussion with my own teen, we had a frank talk about sexting and why kids do it - even though parents, teachers and even the authorities warn them about the long-term repercussions and dangers. His response was “because they don’t care.” This led to a conversation together about morals and values. The overall consensus was that teens, in general, l hear the same “don’t” message over and over again, to the point that they tune it right out. It reminded me of the Peanut’s gang teacher “lecturing” in the classroom and all we heard was “wah, wah, wah, waah, waaah.”

A good conversation is the right combination of allowing each person to speak, and more importantly, for the non-speakers to listen.

From the discussion together with my son, I learned a lot about what is going on in my child’s world just by taking the time to hear what he had to say. I didn’t lecture or judge, I just listened. What that said to my son was, “I think what you have to say is important,” and “You can trust me.”

Demonstrate empathy

When you’re having a conversation with your teen, don’t hesitate to ask questions. “How does this make you feel?” or “Why do you think people don’t care about sharing these types of photos?” By asking simple questions like these, it conjures up an emotional reaction that can lead to a meaningful discussion and help you as a parent - and digital parent - to better understand what teens face today.

Be “In The Know”

Research technology on your own to familiarize yourself with the digital landscape for teens. Ask your child questions about what apps are hot, what games are popular, and where they spend their time online. Take a vested interest in what they do, how they experience, what they feel, and what they think.

Bookmark your favorite sites for up-to-date references on the latest digital trends. Sites such as commonsensemedia.org and fosi.org are great resources and are organized by age and category so they are extremely user friendly.

Don’t just be a spectator - Get into the game

Engage with your child using technology. Don’t ignore it; ask how it works. Learning about the world of Minecraft, for example, brought me back to feeling the curiosity of a child. Understanding the excitement and element of surprise of getting a new Snapchat reminds me of receiving a note passed in class. Knowing a bit more about what our children enjoy spending hours doing allows us to be a part of their technology world instead of sitting on the sidelines. Plus, knowing that we’re actively observing their online behavior may motivate them to make better choices.

“We can’t prepare our kids for the world they will inhabit as adults by dragging them back to the world we lived in as kids. It’s not our job as parents to put away the phones. It’s our job to take out the phones, and teach our kids how to use them.”

— The Atlantic, “Parents: Reject Technology Shame”

Finding the right concoction of conversation, understanding, engaging, and most importantly, listening will help each of us find our own recipe to success in the world of digital parenting.

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How kid-friendly search engine Kiddle fares with trending topics on social