Kid-friendly Browsers: Part 2
Kid-Friendly Browsers: making the worlds of the web safer–Part 2
Today we review two more browsers that are helping make the web a safer place for kids under the age of 12 and relieving anxious moms who worry about their kids safety online.
Buddy Browser
This kid-safe web browser is colorful, cute and
walled-in with pre-approved fun and educational sites.
Protection
- Kids can surf only approved sites
- Moms have locking ability which prevents the closing or opening of other browsers without a password
- There is no spyware, adware, no popups, advertising, or chat rooms
- Comes with an optional safe buddy ‘messenger’ function
- If kids venture onto a site that’s not approved it will send an email to moms for approval
- Moms can add or delete sites
Cost
Free download
What’s it got?
- Pre-selected sites are organized by categories such as; games, movies, sports, ecards, and art and all popular kids sites are available.
- There’s a home page for kids to personalize their fav sites (and it comes with parental controls)
- A ‘Homework Helper’ is available for math, english and science
- Includes educational learning channels, such as; science, nature, and animals
- There’s even a parent corner–for tips and sharing
The ‘Spiffy’
- Let’s moms set allowable useage time in hours
- Colorful fun icons makes it easy for little fingers to manage
- There’s voice-guided navigation which is a wonderful feature for pre-readers
- Activities can be accessed by both age and gender
- And it even offer mom a ‘Visit Report’
The ‘Wow’
Endorsed by Safe Surf using Safe Surf’s Web Ratings System
Oops
Our reviewer reports that the download flashed her a warning that a Trojan Horse was detected.
KidZui
This turns your browser into a kid-safe universe with over
1 million websites, games, pictures, YouTube videos and more.
It offers a balance of entertainment, education, community, and homework help–all with full kid-safetly and protection.
Protection
- In lockdown mode prevents closing browser, dowloading files, or opening other applications without a mom-approved password
- Any ‘friends’ additions trigger a permission feature from mom allowing friends to be approved or blocked
Cost
Free to use as a browser. There is also a paid membership which runs $7.95 per month or $39.95 for a six month membership. When we check, there was a special offer of $39.95 for a full year.
What’s it got for free?
- Ability to add individual websites such as school, family, blogs, etc.
- Parent controls
- E-mail reports of kid’s activity online
- Top 10 sites your kids recently visited
- Allows access to all your kids
- Let’s kids create, dress and accessorize their own “Zui”
- Kids can join the community and make friends (with mom’s permission)
- Kids can even rate content with their very own very cool Tags
The ‘Spiffy’ paid membership goodies
- Ablility to block websites
- Your kid’s online activity in a neat graph for 90-days
- Add favs to your kids account
- View your kids top interest by their online activity
- Unlock lots of new Tags, extra features, over 100 accessories and clothes
- Get the Homework Helper
- Create your own channel
- Add your mood of the day
- And ping your friends to say ‘hi’
The ‘Wow’
There’s a toll-free number you can call and speak to a real person. 9 to 5 eastern time just dial 1-888-543-9848
How many ‘Clicks’ do these browsers get?
We love sites that keep our kids safe so we give these a big 10 Clicks! What do you think? Send your views to OneClickMoms.
Today’s Reviewer is Cynthia Lechan Goodman
Cynthia Lechan-Goodman is a seasoned educator/counselor/writer/artist. She has a Master’s Degree in Education and Counseling from Columbia, a B.S. in Elementary Education, and what she considers to be the highest levels of advanced education– marriage and being a mommy!
Cynthia writes on parenting and families for publications including Mother and Daughter Bonding, Family Maker Magazine, DUO Miami, is a family entertainment Miami contributor to The Gather Group, has written and edited elementary school books for Scholastic Inc., and taught and tutored from New York down the coast to Florida. For this column on the internet, she brings the grand appreciation of one who has used technology that began with typewriters to the fascination of cyberspace today.
Coming up next we’ll be reviewing something just a little different. Wisenhimer is a site that teaches kids about healthy habits–food, fitness and more. Please join us.
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