Google’s SafeSearch helps keep kids safer on the internet

The world wide web is a evolving community, home to everything from exotic recipes to embarrassing videos to books that are no longer in print. In recent years, as the Web 2.0 revolution shifted the focus of the content online from larger websites to individual users, the amount and variety of data and entertainment available has exploded. Unfortunately, while the nature of the internet permits the mass publication of just about anything, it also means that a significant amount of what’s available might not be considered appropriate for children (or in some cases, anyone).

Protecting children from the hazards of dangerous and inappropriate material online has been a great challenge for families and schools since the internet became a part of daily life for the majority of Americans. Some may feel in their frustration that the easiest solution is to simply keep children off the internet entirely, but research has shown that keeping kids offline can stunt their development in the information age.

The internet is a priceless resource for the near instantaneous transfer of information, and being able to navigate it effectively is an indispensable skill in the modern world. Students can benefit greatly from the educational material online as well, so it’s understood that some sort of compromise must be made to allow children some access to the internet. Web filters are the most common tools that parents and schools employ to try to allow children online without giving them access to everything on the web.

The balance that any web filter must create between permitting some but not all content in is a difficult one, and some services are criticized for either blocking legitimate content or allowing objectionable content through. Some even suffer from both of these problems simultaneously. Even worse, a percentage of filters can easily be completely undermined by inquisitive teens and tweens with little to no technical skill required.

Google, being the single most popular and well known search engine on the planet, is stop #1 for most web users and especially most younger ones. There’s plenty of safe content out there for children to access, and Google has always offered its own filter for search results, which has been very successful. Unfortunately these settings could easily be altered by any user, including the ones who shouldn’t not be accessing unfiltered content in the first place.

Now, Google has launched an improvement that allows a user to lock the SafeSearch option with a password to prevent minors from altering the settings. The results subsequently generated by Google’s search engine while these SafeSearch settings are in place will also be visibly different from the normal search results, with a large image of colored balls in the upper right corner letting parents and teachers know even from across the room that the filter is still working.

There’s more than one way to keep children safe online, and the best option is to combine several layers of protection. Google’s new SafeSearch is a valuable tool to help keep offensive material away from children, but it’s no substitute for active involvement with children while they are using the internet and talking with them about the dangers that lurk in the unsavory parts of the web.

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