Making a browser may not exactly be child’s play, but there is still a need for one children can play with.
Tel Aviv, Israel-based KIDO’Z is taking a crack at it by launching its custom media browser for kids today, so if you have any young children who use the internet on a regular basis, you might want to give this one a whirl.
KIDO’Z is a pretty nifty Adobe AIR-powered desktop browser app that gives kids a safe and fun environment to play games, watch videos and/or visit pre-approved websites. When you first install the AIR app as a parent, you can configure the age and gender of your offspring as well as your location and preferred language (there are 17 available).
What’s nice is that all these settings are taken into account at a content level, so KIDO’Z automatically caters the media it think is most suited for your kid(s) at first launch. As a parent you get password-protected access to an admin panel where you can add more or restrict access to certain content, set limited time frames for usage, and so on.
All content only shows up when a KIDO’Z team member approved the content beforehand, and to add more layers of security all scripts, file downloads, pop-ups and any other attempts that could lead to content which has not been approved, are thoroughly blocked.
To use the app, kids won’t need to know how to read or write since obviously the whole UI is quite visual of nature, and very colorful to boot. The main menu of the KIDO’Z browser currently consists of three categories: games, videos and websites. All media can be opened and viewed inside the app’s interface, and in fact kids can only leave the KIDO’Z environment by exiting the browser altogether. CEO Gai Havkin tells me the tool will later be extended to a closed network of communication tools, including e-mail and instant messaging features (see last screenshot), making it more of a social experience but without the security and privacy hazards of existing services.
KIDO’Z is currently completely free of charge, but the startup plans to start offering paid content packages in about three months, so parents can buy additional video material, games etc. for a couple of dollars per month. The company also told me it’s currently in the process of closing several deals with computer manufacterers to get KIDO’Z pre-installed on machines, and it expects to announce a number of partnerships soon.
Other media browsers specifically targeted at kids include KidZui, KidRocket and BuddyBrowser.
Nice. A specific browser for a specific user group. We need more of that!
It’s actually not entirely new, there have been many attempts at web browsers for kids or niched browsers. This is the first one for kids that I’ve seen that didn’t have some sort of url or keyword entry.
It looks nicer than I thought it would from the title, but I’m not so sure the whole membership subscription business plan will work, especially in this economy.
Also kids are a lot smarter and adaptive than their parents. I’m assuming the market for this is amongst less technologically inclined parents who want to let their kid’s have some autonomy in using the computer, but still want moderated access. They would need to have it so that the program starts on startup and takes control of the computer so as to prevent the kid from accessing anything outside the browser like Internet Explorer, or another browser etc.
Of course you could set up user restrictions allowing a kid’s account to only access that particular program – but the demographic for this type of browser would probably not be those who likely know how to set that up.
With two kids of my own and the current ages they are at, I have been looking for something along the lines of KIDO’Z. Excellent information, I will be putting it to use as soon as I get home.
And we wonder why kids get sucked into the media world at such a young age…
Kids don’t get sucked into anything, Stephanie. It’s our responsibility, as parents to educate them the best we can. Many parents leave young children in front of the TV, probably because they cannot afford a babysitter. There are many channels dedicated to entertaining young children – some even have educational content (depending on schedule, audience rates, etc.). The advantage with the Internet is that children can access both educational content and entertaining content at any time, but the problem was always how to make this available for them, without being afraid of facing the inevitable: links to adult sites, spammy popups, trojans, etc. I tested KIDO’Z for my niece – I am still waiting for the software to be available in my language – but in the meanwhile I can say that KIDO’Z is a system that actually prevents kids from being “sucked into the media.” It allows full parental control: nothing you don’t want your child to do or see will ever be displayed.
Looks like a copy of KidZui but for perhaps younger children. The power of KidZui is the ability for it to completely lock up the computer without the parents having to do anything other than select two options (I wonder how this product does it since I don’t believe that AIR has the ability to do so). I have it running on my daughter’s (8 year old) iMac and she can not get out of it (I also have it running on a Windows machine and the same thing applies – Even the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys don’t work). All the content is also approved by both KidZui’s team and the parents, and I get daily reports about what she is doing on it.
The other aspect of it is that it is also social network like in that each kid has an avatar and can chat with other kids and get message from other kids as well. My daughter and all of her friends are on it.
I think these apps are long over due since the attempt to “standardize” the web with the rating systems and then adding that to the browsers has really failed.
Jim, the KIDO’Z team did acknowledge KidZui to be their closest competitor, and also did in fact say the biggest difference was the age.
I’ll be taking a closer look at KidZui real soon.
Hi Robin:
I’m the CEO of KidZui. Thanks for covering the kids internet space.
If you’d like to chat about KidZui, please let me know.
Best,
Cliff
Very nice idea. But i have a curiosity here.. Is this browser able to block adult sites ? & second is, Is it a full & final version ?
Thanks.
this was my dream.
great idea amazing execution.
The campaign funds should be better spent at where 28 – 35 couples frequent.
The DadLabs guys are definitely going to try this out and review. We’d love to hear from someone on the Kido’z team as well.
Good stuff.
Hi Clay
Great to hear from you!
Enjoy trying out KIDO’Z and we look forward to your and your team’s feedback.
Have a good day!
Nici, KIDO’Z
My kids use it for some months now and love it.
I love this browser, I tried it out recently with my 3 year old and we both had a blast. He`s obsessed with being like Mama and hanging out on the computer, so this is a good option for little kids, you don`t want them to end up on some weird site!
I don’t yet have children, but I know my friends who do are constantly worried what their kids are doing online. The older one is a fan of WebKinz, but that’s too complex for the age group this appears to be aimed at. Now I can give the ones w/ toddlers a new option. Nice colorful interface looks like they definitely understand their market.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the kids getting online earlier and earlier. The sooner they can grasp the tools of the real world, the sooner they’ll try to improve upon them and *then* we’ll see some blazingly fast innovations.
Can’t wait for the girls to get home. They are five and six and will love hanging with Mom and doing what she does. Meanwhile, Chow I am going to go play with Kido’Z- don’t tell the boss!
my 6 y/o niece love kidoz.
it holds all her relevant content,
and i can leave her by herself in front of the computer,
i don’t have to ‘operate’ the other browsers.
Very cool, I’m getting one for my boy. Answers a real need for me. I hope the keyboard support is good, as he is not yet fully in control of the mouse (3 y/o)
test
This is a such a great tool for parents and kids! Kids will love the ease of use, colors and fun interface. Parents will love the content control and customizability.
such a great idea!
So, what are the differentiators between Kidoz and Kidzui, etc.? It would be nice not to just do quick overview of a new service (which you could probably gleen from a press release or a demo) and say why it is different, better, or worse than what is already out there…
Good Idea, I added it to my website. There is another Kid Browser call Kidzui.com. Looks kind of the same, but not built on Adobe Air, some of the flash games simply do not work. My sone will be at the house on Wednesday, I am going to try this one out too.
What a good idea, makes me want to have kids!
This all seems like an interesting space, because you’d imagine that parents are willing to pay for these services and are fairly price insensitive. Yet, other than something like Club Penguin, I haven’t heard of too many overwhelming successes. I was reading SocialTimes today http://www.soci...ds-teens-sites/ and they had a top ten list of sites for kids. Is there anywhere else I could find a good resource/listing of kid safe Internet sites and companies in this space?
LOVE this! I’ve been wanting something exactly like this for my daughter for the longest time.
Would love to see a comprehensive comparison of this vs. the other browsers mentioned (KidZui, KidRocket and BuddyBrowser).
My son’s (6 Y/O) been using it for a few months now. He caught it real quick and loved it. Watches clips and play games mostly. Also uses the simplified “bookmarks” featue.
Great tool!
Although I don’t have any kids, I think that this is a fantastic concept for a browser. I’ll certainly be sharing the info with friends and family who do have children.
I thought that this was interesting: “All content only shows up when a KIDO’Z team member approved the content beforehand.” Is that scalable? Or maybe the amount of content that kids need on the Web is small enough such that a team of experts can create “Web channels” of free content. I can imagine parents being willing to pay for the cost of this content filtering. Could be an interesting business model.
Mark,
it is a relevant question. There is a certain convenience in having a group of editors select suitable content for children. Problem with that approach is that it doesn’t really fit in reality. It isn’t an editor’s responsibility to decide what is suitable for your child. It is the parent that is responsible. Parents are the experts about what is suitable for their child. And that choice will be different for every family and every child. There is no ‘one size fits all’.
At Glubble we prefer to provide parents easy tools that allow them to decide what is suitable for their child. As the child grows older, parents can add sites and capabilities to their children’s environment. This approach puts parents in control and provides them means to let the web expand as their child gets older.
Alexander van Elsas
CEO Glubble
http://www.glubble.com
Coca Cola and Pepsi, NIke and Addidas, or more appropriately, apples and oranges. I have been doing this blog thing for a while and it still never ceases to amaze me that most people would rather just make unqualified statements, quite obviously to me sometimes, out of personal need.
CEO’s come and suggest a seemingly competitive product out of? You answer that one. For the most part people just throw their hat in the ring, but many express some angst or fear driven component of their own world.
As for the people who exhibit positive attitudes, call them enthusiastic if you will, I am always uplifted by them and the ones who ask really pertinent questions, wanting meaningful answers.
On the CEO or seeded comment aspect, making comments without even having tested something, well, we are all familiar with branding and PR either good or bad. KIDO’Z, which I tested some time ago, represents a unique, if somewhat overlapping value for an important segment of our society – kids. Kidzui is a fine platform, well thought out save the complexity for very small children, but that is not the ónyl distinction between these developments, not at all.
Rather than me going into minute detail, as I know Robin would just love
Perhaps everyone with kids this age, should download the services and see which one suits their needs.
For those CEO’s of so called competitors, I suggest hiring someone like me (but you can’t because I won’t do it) to honestly evaluate the competition and report accurately on the pluses and minuses, rather than the insinuated expertness strategy so often utilized here and all over.
This is a great article and a great opportunity for some very nice people and a worthwhile endeavor. What happened to the positive attitude we all had when Web 2.0 became a household word? VC money surely didn’t become that scarce, did it?
I suggest learning from one another, all of us, and making better things through clean competition. Rather than what has become the “nah, nah, nah, nah, nanny boo boo” method to excellence. I think half the people on the Web these days need KIDO’Z more than KIDZUI because we all know most people hate to read.
Always,
Phil
Hi Phil,
I merely responded to a commenter above asking a question on the way content is selected. I am not making unqualified statements, merely describing how we deal with this complex balance of giving parents flexibility and control and children a great web experience.
Cheers,
Alexander
Hi
Thanks for the feedback.
I 100% agree that parents are the experts about what is suitable for their children.
This is the whole basis on which the KIDO’Z platform is built – to recognize the uniqueness of each child.
Parents can choose exactly what their children can access – they can block all public content and allow only what they approve of (or even only their private content if they wish), they can choose to allow all content and manually block anything they don’t want, and so on.
The whole KIDO’Z system is designed for parental personalization.
All the best
Nici, KIDO’Z
Definitely a good idea, However, I feel LITTLEYE is taking a better approach by utilizing and enhancing existing browsers on a user’s machine.
Check them out for yourself: http://littleye.com
Hi All
I would like first to thank you and let you know that we at KIDO’Z are excited from your feedback and support
Some of you raised a fair questions regarding the differentiation between KIDO’Z and kidzui, the obvious is the different age focus which reflects in many levels,
KIDO’Z is focused on early childhood while kidzui can be great solution for older kids
Obviously there is more and we welcome neutral in depth comparission between the different solutions out there.
Take care
Gai, KIDO’Z
Great idea!
Wow, what a great idea! That is really cool!
RT
http://www.anonymity.ru.tc
“KIDO’Z is currently completely free of charge, but the startup plans to start offering paid content packages in about three months… [It’s] currently in the process of closing several deals with computer manufacturers to get KIDO’Z pre-installed on machines…”
I think that would be a great idea – saves parents the extra step of having to download the browser, plus it does help parents who may not have the time to set the limits and cover all ground in a regular browser. While I hope the use of the browser will continue to be free-of-charge, I would not mind paying a subscription to be provided with good educational content for the kids.
Just saw this thing and I love it. This is going to be hot.
Interesting how this looks nothing like the prototype mock ups they designed last week…
http://tinyurl.com/cxkcv4
This thing is bullshit. The target age group, which I will refer to as the “retard stage of human development”, is one that kids shouldn’t use the interwebs. Evar! They should be outside with, being bullied by the older kids.
Of course, later, there is the supervised browsing, with the parents sitting next to the little bed-wetters using a REAL browser. Of course that won’t stop “those pesky kids” from doing retarded stuff with our damn inter-thingy as soon as they are left alone, ruining it for all of us. No free porn for us no more.
Thanks for your time.
PS. Don’t treat kids like idiots, not even with a “browser” like this.
love it, going now to start to use it
Kidzui is better.
To stay current, popular, and to prepare for the future, I do think kids need to be exposed to the Internet fairly early. The question that most parents (i.e. friends and family) ask me, is how to stop their kids from visiting rotten dot com or pr0n sites.
From what I see, this is one of the most flexible while targeted solutions. It also offers a solution to limiting the time of day and duration of kids’ getting online. Well done!
I have two questions though:
1. Kids always want to be adults and play with the same things as adults do. Are you planning to offer a skin so that the app can be made to look vaguely like “dad’s FireFox”?
2. How intelligent / configurable is the content selection? I feel kids should be exposed to nudity in art, for example, and yet not exposed to hardcore action.
Hi,
Thanks for your support.
Re. question 1, that is a great idea!
In response to question 2, parents can add content to KIDO’Z according to their beliefs – KIDO’Z content can be totally personalized.
Contact us if you have any further questions.
All the best
Nici, KIDO’Z
I think this is actually a scheme nambla cooked up to index all the worlds children.
My kids love KidZui… http://www.kidzui.com