KidRex: A Safe and Kid Friendly Search Engine

In today's web-dominated society it is important for students to develop strong researching skills, specifically internet guided research.

The article, "Reading the Web, Internet Guided reading With Young Children", provides an instructional framework for primary teachers to help support young readers in learning to read and search for information on the internet. It emphasizes the importance of guiding students to reading specific information, how to use a search engine to read and evaluate search results, and to gather information about the general content of a website.

A website called KidRex, is a safe search engine designed for kids to conduct Google searches. As stated on the KidRex website, "KidRex is a fun and safe search for kids, by kids! KidRex searches emphasize kid-related webpages and are powered by Google Custom Search and use Google SafeSearch technology." Google safe screens for sites that contain inappropriate material and filters them out from children's search results. This website also helps students transition to the standard Google search engine. I believe it is crucial to be teaching our students how to read and research on the internet, here is an online resource I found that has 11 free reading websites for kids: http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/community/11-free-reading-websites-for-kids/.

References:​

• Google.ca (Images)

• http://www.kidrex.org

• Slayer, D. (2015). The Reading Teacher. READING THE WEB Internet Guided Reading With Young Children, 69(1), 35-39. doi:10.1002/(issn)1936-2714