Kiddle, the newly dubbed "Google for Kids" is a search engine marketed as essentially safe for kids to use. It even has a tagline that it is "powered by editors and Google safe search" which leads parents to believe that they can freely allow their children to roam the Internet using Kiddle. However, there is more to this "kid-safe" search engine than meets the eye.
According to She Knows, many parents were misled by the "powered by editors and Google safe search," line, believing that Kiddle.co is affiliated or run by the big G. However, this search engine is not being run by Google.
Kiddle is a separate entity that utilizes Google safe-search technology in order to filter contents that are considered as "naughty" as well as those content under Rule 34. While such failsafe may prove to be useful, it however does not entirely weed out content that should not turn up in the results pages for kids. She Knows mentioned that most search queries end up being totally innocuous, which leads children to adult content.
One example is that if you search for "Kim Kardashian and Ray J," you can see that the first entry on Kiddle shows the term "sexual exploits" in the description. Going down further would show you "sex tape" which Kim purportedly made with ex-boyfriend Ray J. Now this surely creates doubt as to how kid-safe is Kiddle if it can't block "sexual exploits" and "sex tape."
According to BBC, Kiddle has also blocked the following words: lesbian, gay, circumcision, suicide, and the actress Pamela Anderson. On the other hand, it did not block the terms female genital mutilation, self-harm and "Fifty Shades of Grey."
So what's the moral of the story here? One can just conclude that there really isn't a foolproof kid-safe search engine out there. The only thing that's certain is that parents would have to continuously guide their children and do what they can in order to prevent their kids from accessing information on the Internet which will cause them harm. After all, guarding a child is a parent's job, and not Kiddle's.
