Safe Search Sites for Kids

As a teacher, I want my students to ask questions and then work to find the answers themselves. I will always be there to guide and support my students to find the answers they need, but I think the process of searching, filtering sources, and deciding which information is best is more valuable than the actual answer.

That said, I would never direct students to just search in Google for their answer. I am of the belief that kids are only young once and that they are exposed to enough "adult content" at an early age via various forms of media; I want to let my students "be little" for as long as possible! And I'm always surprised when I search for something seemingly innocent and receive some...not so innocent results. 😳

The happy medium I've found is to guide students to search on "kid friendly" search engines. Our district subscribes to a number of these...if you work in my district, check with your campus librarian to see exactly which databases are available to you. 

However, if you're looking for something free that can be used at any time, here are some kid-friendly search engines I like:

• KidRex.org
• Kiddle.co
• KidsClick.org
• FactMonster.com
• SafeSearchKids.com
• SweetSearch.com
• DibDabDoo.com
• KidzSearch.com
• Kidtopia.info
• Custom Google Search - Create your own! Use Google's powerful, tried-and-true search methods combined with parameters to search only the websites you specify. For instance, I have a custom Google search already created with all of the above-mentioned kid-friendly search sites. You can access my custom Google search by clicking here. If you'd like help creating your own Custom Google Search, click here for directions. 

Be aware that none of these safe-searches are going to catch 100% of the icky stuff, so I still recommend being present and aware of what children are looking for online. 

Once you have these links, there are several ways you can get them onto student devices. Click here to read about 8 ways to quickly share links with students.