Family Friendly Searches on Search Engines
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Search Without Getting Inappropriate Results
One of the worst places to send a kid on the Web, is a search engine. They search for something innocent, like "girl sites" and the results can be quite shocking. Search engines have realized that families need filter options to get results without unwanted, offensive material.
A couple of the major search engines have added an optional family filter. You have to make sure it is turned on before starting your search, by setting the options. When you do this, each time you go back the filter will be active. Altavista has a family filter that you can set by going to settings. When you open Altavista is does not show if you have the family filter on until you actually do a search, but once you initiate the filter it will be on everytime you go there. Google also has filtering available. The default is set to moderate filtering. To increase the level of filtering you must click on "preferences" and change it.
To alleviate looking whether or not you have the filter on, going directly to a search engine that is only family friendly is easier, especially for children. Ask For Kids is a good option and it is simple for any child to use. Instead of searching for terms, all they have to do is enter a question. It also has a spell check option for their question. Another place to search is KidsClick. You can search through sites that have been hand picked by librarians.
With so many sites available, it can be a very difficult task to find the information you are looking for quickly and easily. One of the biggest problems with search engines is that they return irrelevant results. Search engines are trying to remedy this problem, but in the meantime, at least you can filter out the offensive material.