My Search Turned Up What??

My Search Turned Up What?

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.

Taken From: WBTV Segment with Kristin Miranda, Protecting Your CyberTurf

It’s happened to all of us at one point or another, you are searching for something on the internet, click on the results and you see something you wish you had not. Well, that’s happening to kids more and more as they go online using the home computer, smart phones and ipads. The good news is there is something you can do about it to try to block some of those search results you would rather not expose your kids to.

We have all had those moments where you are so embarrassed when you clicked on that link and you ask yourself, how in the world did this come up when I did my search? Well, as adults, we can handle it – most of the time anyway. But, kids, they don’t need to see that. WBTV’s cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains what you can do to avoid those awful search situations.

There are some new search features available you may want to check out and set up each place your kid surfs the net.

1. Google’s new feature: Google Safe Search. You can set the filter to “strict” and lock the settings in so your kids cannot change them. You can also show your kids their search page called Google Kids.

2. Bing offers a “strict” or “moderate” filter for their browser.

3. Ask Jeeves has an “Ask Kids”

4. YouTube now has a YouTube Safe Search which you can set and lock

You may decide you want to fine tune your search engines at home on the computer, smart phones, and any place your kids surfs the web. Theresa has listed a few web sites that you may find helpful.

WEB RESOURCES:

To lock YouTube: http://www.safesearchkids.com/youtube-parental-controls.html

Google Safe Search: http://www.safesearchkids.com/google-for-kids.html

Bing Search: http://www.bing.com/settings.aspx

For a listing of more search options for kids try: http://www.safesearchkids.com/kids-search-engines.html

For screen by screen instructions on how to set your Google search preferences and lock them down to make it hard for your kids to bypass, see:

http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/2011/02/google-safe-search-for-your-kids.html