Review of KidZui Kid Safe Internet Browser

I have never particularly liked the idea of using special web browsers for kids. I figured that it was better to teach kids ahead of time what kinds of things were acceptable for them to view, and the reasons behind these choices, instead of simply preventing them from being able to access any unacceptable sites at all.

Then I started babysitting a boy whose parents had strict rules about what he could see on TV, what video games he could play, and what he could go to on the Internet. Because the boy comes to my house after school and often uses my computer to get onto the Internet, I decided to look into downloading a special "kid safe" browser for him to use. I researched and tried out several free programs, including KidRocket, Kid-Safe, and BuddyBrowser, before ultimately deciding on KidZui.

One of the reasons I love KidZui is because it allows you to create separate accounts for each one of your children. The kids love creating their own avatars, which they can personalize by changing the hairstyles, hair colors, clothing, facial expressions, and more. As far as I know, you can create as many kids' accounts as you want to on one parent account. I had intended to use the KidZui browser only for the boy I babysit, but I ended up creating accounts for my own three kids, and even one of their friends who is often at our house!

When you create a kid's account, you specify the child's birthday. Then, when the child logs in using his own account, the screen he sees will depend on how old he is,. For instance, the three and five-year-olds in my house log in and find screens with lots of pictures for them to click on, each picture leading to a different kid-friendly site. The five-year-old loves to go to Starfall.com and play alphabet games, while the three-year-old looks for Elmo and Dora. Meanwhile, when the older kids log on, they find a more typical web browser, where they can do regular searches for the topics they're interested in. This way, they can do safe searching for school projects and other things, instead of being "trapped" in a little kid's site! The older kids' screens also have tabs on the side that can lead them to games and other fun things.

As their parent, I get reports in my personal email box, letting me know what each child has been playing and what searches they've been doing on their own accounts. I can also personalize each child's account, by allowing them access to sites usually blocked by KidZui, or denying them access to sites that KidZui has deemed safe. So, if I didn't want my three-year-old to ever go to the Cartoon Network site, I could do that. And if I thought it was fine for the eleven-year-old to go on MySpace, I could do that, too! Basically, KidZui gets the site ready with pre-set safe sites and blocked sites, but the final decisions on what sites to allow or block are always up to the parents.

Another cool thing about KidZui is that it doubles as a social networking site for kids. Kids can make new virtual friends on KidZui (although parents have to approve new friends) and can share their favorite sites and tags with their friends.

KidZui is free to download, but they also have a subscription version that gives parents more detailed reports, and gives kids more Internet goodies on their accounts. For instance, with a subscription account, kids earn points every time they log on and spend time on their account. With their points, they can unlock new backgrounds for their pages, and get access to more facial expressions and clothing for their avatars.

KidZui is so much fun for the kids in my house, that they haven't even asked about how to get to our regular browser they used to use!

So, if you are thinking about getting a kid-safe browser for your computer, definitely consider KidZui first!