Ask Kids

Ask Kids at askkids.com.

Plot: A web browser made for addressing questions asked by children. This site is a branch of the famous Ask.com.

Genre: Web Browser, Websites

Personal Thoughts: The site is a study in the issues surrounding censorship. When I typed in my question, "What is a qat?" the site replied it could not find an answer. By contrast, when I typed in the same question with the same terminology into the "adult" version, I received over ten pages of relevant websites. Perhaps the reason for the difference stems from the fact that a qat is a shrub occasionally used as a narcotic. While children need to be protected, eliminating potential resources does not serve them well. In addition, merely accessing a new browser would still permit access to the information, so the limitations do not actually provide the implied protection. Kids can and will, intentionally or not, find loopholes through censorship, so limiting a particular resource will not prevent "undesirable" information from being found.