Kiddle.co, dubbed as the Google for kids, has been launched as a child-friendly search engine, allowing young netizens to carry out a Web, image, video or news search that supposedly won't cause parents to worry.
But a report has surfaced online claiming Kiddle brings up references to killing rabbits and Khloe Kardashian's sex tape.
Kiddle is powered by editors and Google safe search, enabling children to browse the Internet without inadvertently pulling up results that they are not supposed to see.
According to the company, when a child keys a query into the search bar, this tool will yield a few links related to the subject. The first three results that will show up are safe pages and sites that are specifically catered to children. These are chosen and checked by Kiddle editors.
The succeeding four to seven results will include those written in words easily comprehensible to kids. Of course, these are also picked by editors.
The next results will feature sites that are filtered by Google safe search yet intended for adult readers, which means these are a bit harder for children to understand.
Since the results are "either handpicked and checked by [its] editors or filtered by Google safe search, you know you get kid-oriented results without any explicit content."
Once a few bad words are present in a specific search query, "[Kiddle's] guard robot will block the search."
In a few cases, though, some not-so-kid-friendly results seem to pass through Kiddle's blocking system.
UK's Mirror Online reports how it uncovered some "worrying" results, such as a sex tape reference for Khloe Kardashian and naked images for Vanessa Hudgens.
Mirror says it has already reached out to Kiddle for comment regarding the matter. The search results for Kardashian and Hudgens have also been updated.
A Twitter user has also shared his discovery while using the search engine for children.
Just heard of a "search engine for kids" called Kiddle. I was disappointed on my very first search. Yikes! pic.twitter.com/1KKlXPbbqy
— Nate Smith (@nthdesign) February 28, 2016
While other people seem to have mistaken this site for a Google spinoff, do note that this is not associated with the Mountain View-based company. Rather, Kiddle is a third-party entity that employs Google safe search.
Google has NOT launched a kids search engine called Kiddle, despite some new reports you may read. It's a third-party using Google's results — Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) February 28, 2016
Furthermore, this search engine does not gather personal information. It clears its logs every 24 hours.
