This episode of Internet Safety for Kids is offered to you by Doctor Johannes Drooghaag. Doctor Johannes Drooghaag offers online education in cybersecurity and business management. Have a look at https://JohannesDrooghaag.com to find the right education program for your organization.
Hi, welcome to Internet Safety for Kids and thank you for joining our program!
As always with our program Internet Safety for Kids, please make sure to watch this episode together when possible, so you all learn and understand these important topics. Don’t allow the adults to say that they already know everything because there will be plenty to learn for them, too!
Can you imagine finding something on the internet in the same way that you for example find a book in a library? It would be very difficult to find exactly what you need, and we are very lucky to have search engines which make searching for something on the internet a lot easier. But those search engines show everything they find for you and that might not always be the right things, right? That is why there are special search engines for kids which make sure that you get the information which is right for you.
We will explain why is it important, what does it mean, and what should you do. Are you with us?
When the internet was created, the goal was to make information available for everyone. Think of it like a huge digital library where every piece of information is available for everyone. But don’t think of it like a building where you can go to, like with a normal library. No, the internet was going to be a library of information spread all over the world which you can access from everywhere with an internet connection.
Search engines were invented to help us find our way in that huge pile of information that just keeps growing. They basically visit all the websites around the world and create a list of everything that is on those websites, so you can search on that list and see where you can find the information you are looking for. That sound great and in most cases it is great.
But there are also some challenges with that. The first challenge is that these search engines do not really check if the information is correct. They just show you where the information is available. They also do not check if the information is right for your age group. And these search engines look for example at what is popular or what is optimized for their method to decide which results you will see at the top of the list and which ones will end at the bottom. Many search engines even have advertisement so that means that the information which is paid for is always shown first.
Let us say for example that you need to search something about history for your homework. It is important that you find information that is correct. When you search for “Is Earth flat?”, you will find many people saying that Earth is flat and many others saying that Earth is not flat. How do you know which one is correct? The normal search engines expect you to figure out for yourself what is true or not, they just give you the information they have found for you.
To take care of almost all of these issues, special search engines have been created which allow you to filter out the wrong information, the advertisement, and the information which is not for your age group. Some even make sure that the information is checked by for example teachers and parents. Others are using special filters that take away the bad information. When you search for “Search engines for kids”, you will find many options and you can pick the one you like the most.
- Search engines for kids help you to get the right information
- They also help you to stay safe from misleading information
- Good search engines for kids have filters for age groups
- Always remember that not everything you find on the internet is true
Once you have decided which search engine is right for you, you will need to go to the settings of all devices you use and make sure this is your default search engine. The good ones will even help you do this for you. Great, isn’t it? It is important to set your default search engine to make sure that all your searches go to the search engine you have selected. And as always, we recommend that you do this together with your parents or other adults, so we all know about what we are doing to stay safe on the internet. Let us make some notes together.
- Select a search engine for kids which allows you to select your age group
- Make sure to make this the default search engine for all devices you use
- Keep following our tips about security, even with search engines for kids