Social Networking for Kids? Kidzui Free Internet

Posted on 26. Aug, 2008 by Holly in Free Software, Kids

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If you have a child who enjoys using the computer, playing games or watching kids videos, you will want to know about Kidzui. Kidzui is a free, safe kids browser for children ages 3-12 years-old. The website officially launched on March 18, 2008. I discovered it approximately one week ago, as my 3 1/2 year old son enjoys playing games on the Internet. I was looking for a few fun educational games, when I came across Kidzui.

Kidzui takes a whole new approach to filtering out the bad content from the web, to protect the eyes and mind of the children. Rather than blacklisting Internet sites, they “white list” sites that are approved and safe for children of specific ages. I believe there are over 1/2 million sites that are on there at this time.

What does this mean? It can be hard to grasp the concept of Kidzui, without taking a look at it yourself. But basically, if you go to the website and signup. Your child will be signed up first. You can create a username and password for him/her. Then the login details for you child will be e-mailed to you. You will then receive a notification e-mail which lets you create your Parent account. Your Parent account login area is not the same as your child’s. Parent accounts allow the adults to login and view actual details and statistics about how many minutes or hours your child has been online. Also, which websites, videos and games he/she was playing (and at what times). For the worrying parents, this is a useful tool. For me, I think it is good to know just how much time my child spends online, to keep things in balance. God knows I do not want my child online as much as I am, so less than an hour a day would be fine!

Now for the fun stuff! After you create the two accounts (the Parent account and the child account), you will also have a new icon on your desktop. Whenever your child wants to surf the web, he/she will need to click on the icon and login to the account. After logging in, the child can create a character that looks like him/her. Then Internet browsing can commence, and the style and setup of the Internet with Kidzui is easy to use, navigate around and also to mingle. Mingle??? Not only is this a kids Internet browser, but it almost seems like a social network as well. Kids have their own profiles, and they can make friends. If they watch a youtube video, after watching it, they can vote and say if they liked it or did not like it, etc. Other kids online can see their votes, and their profiles. They can add each other as friends and socialize with other little Internet browsing kids.

Some parents might think this is not such a good thing for the children developmentally. I was honestly shocked to see it. Parents really need to be cautious so that the children do not become little computer robots drones with no “real” social lives, etc. If anyone has seen the new movie “Wall-e” then you will know what could happen to the future of the Earth and society if we live solely “In our computers.” So, my advice is to just be careful. I like the safe Internet Browser, but it’s a little weird to see something that reminds me of Myspace for toddlers! Overall, I think it is a really neat way to let my child browse the Internet. But, I think it is extremely important to be social in the real world and teach the children about real interactions, rather than have him/her on that web for too long. Any thoughts or opinions on this?

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7 Responses to “Social Networking for Kids? Kidzui Free Internet”

  1. advocado

    26. Aug, 2008

    I think that you are right in the importance of distinguishing fantasy or the online world and the real world for children. To create a means for children to learn how to utilize the internet occasionally for gathering important information or whatever a parent determines is pertinent for their child (maybe finding info on something their child is interested in) is fine.
    The concept though of allowing the parents to be able to see their child’s activity is brilliant and can create a great opportunity to dialogue in families.

    Nothing substitutes going outside and playing discovering the outside world while using your imagination independent of the idiot box or internet.

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  2. advocado

    26. Aug, 2008

    Plus with all your time online Holly you are still normal eh?
    :-p

  3. JK Swopes

    26. Aug, 2008

    Great Holly, I have 3 kidrens, and they all love to go online. Of course, being the geek I am, I have installed a filter on their pc so it blocks the blacklisted stuff…but this one seems a bit better.

    When sites must be white listed, I think the control is a lot better.

    Especially for my 5 year old! I will have to check this out.

    JK Swopess last blog post..IMwithJoe.com Weekly Updates and Such

  4. T Edwards

    27. Aug, 2008

    This is really cool. My 10 year old daughter loves the computer but I haven’t let her have a MySpace like several of her friends. I will definitely check this out.

    Talk to you sooon

  5. annaverawilliams

    08. Sep, 2008

    Educating children in computer technology from an early age is obviously vital. We do want them to be successful, and the more they know about computers, the better off they will be.

    Not screanaholics of course. I agree they absolutely need to have plenty of time playing outside. I never played video games as a child, other than Pac-Man on the ferry which I had to ride whenever we left Long Island. My mom would give me a coin and I would play once or twice - had the time of my life. And then I went upstairs to watch the water go by.

    To this day I have been otherwise disinterested in video games of any nature. Actually I have an aversion to them. A few years ago I tried to play one and I couldn’t stand it. The pointlessness!

    But on the other side of the coin, there is something I probably should mention. When I was 9-10 years old my mother moved me and my sisters to another state so she could Home School us.

    Try as she might to get me to study math and do tests for my correspondence school, the truth was that I spent the better part of a year running around outside in the reeds and on the beaches of Cape Cod. Oh - and there was a theater class (Winnie the Poo), art lessons, Sunday school in my friend’s Church, planting pussywillows, and listening to my mother read The Lord of the Rings aloud to us every night (while defining all the new words). I also spent some of my spare time researching nutrition if I remember correctly! Ha.

    Anyway, after I spent a year of wandering around the beaches, making shell candles, and generally messing around, we had to return to New York State and thus to public school.

    Mysteriously I was ahead of everyone in my class. I moved up to the higher classes for the fifth grade. But eventually that didn’t cut it, and I had to be shipped off to a special school for smarter kids. At least I got teased a less.

    Anyway, that just goes to show what running around in the reeds can do.

    annaverawilliamss last blog post..Contests for Traffic

  6. Jane@kids lessons

    16. Jun, 2009

    Many parental-control products impose draconian restrictions on when kids can use the Internet and where they can go. And many kids, rebelling against these restrictions, devote their best efforts to busting out of the products’ control.KidZui indeed takes a different approach. I think that for preschoolers or children not familiar with the Internet, this approach may work.

    Jane@kids lessonss last blog post..Learn with your kid

  7. Holly

    16. Jun, 2009

    Hi Jane - I think you are totally correct with your thoughts on this. For younger children - who are not yet out there to rebel and break free from the restrictiveness - Kidzui is definitely a safe, fun way for them to safely play a few games online.

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