We’re excited Kiddofy v2 is now available. With features that extend their ability to provide, organize, and control kiddos’ approved content, it’s easier than ever for parents, homeschoolers, educators, and others to help children benefit from the Web safely.
Kiddofy’s approach to safety is simple: we block everything, put parents in full control, and then help them add back the parts of the Web that are best for their children.
There are three parts to our app and service:
① Safe Browser
Kiddofy’s safe browser allows children access to approved webpages only. When kiddos navigate to content not approved, it’s easy to request access from their parents.
② Tools for Parents / Educators
Kiddofy’s app gives parents and educators the tools they need to manage children’s approved content and monitor their activity on the Web.
③ Help with Content
When you start by blocking everything, parents have the challenge of re-populating their child’s personal view of the Web. To help, the team at Kiddofy curates Collections of great websites, pages, and videos, organized by age and topics, and our patented technology allows parents to enlist the help of others they trust to safely share appropriate content. Learn more from our blog post, Sharing with Kiddofy.
Doing these things well enables kiddos to safely benefit from the great resources available to them on the Web. The release of v2 has improved our browser, given more tools and control to parents and educators, and has significantly expanded our users’ ability to share great content with their children, families, students, and communities.
The features of Kiddofy v2 unlock new approaches to providing and managing children’s approved content, which reduce work and provide fine-grained control. They also make curating great content for kiddos and, optionally, sharing it with others easier than ever.
With v2, users can now:
We’ve also improved existing Kiddofy features in the following ways:
Let’s go deeper into our new features.
Kiddofy has always empowered users to safely share content with kiddos. Before v2, it was done a single website or webpage at a time, like texting a webpage to someone.
Approved content is organized in Collections.
With v2, users can also create and maintain (i.e., curate) content Collections that can be shared with others. This makes it really easy to manage groups of content for one or more kiddos, whether they’re your children, students, or members of your community. When you add, remove, or change content in the Collection, it’s updated automatically for everyone.
Create Collections for your child’s work time, play time, reading, exploration, etc. Turn on and off Collections for the right occasion.
Create a Collection of great websites for kiddos who love music, or cooking, or adorable animal videos. Share your interests with your children and others in your community.
Create a Collection of websites used in your classroom or for homeschooling. Share with your students and amongst your co-op. Using Kiddofy, kiddos have safe access at school, home, and on the road.
Maybe it seems peculiar that we added a feature to block websites, since Kiddofy starts by blocking everything and then adds back only what’s approved. This feature brings the ability to carve away detailed selections of content from amongst a kiddos’ approved Collections and Homework Mode, for ultimate control. It has two parts: blocking websites and blocking Collections – temporarily or permanently. They work differently and are used for different purposes.
Block a website or webpage with an optional expiration.
When a webpage or entire website is blocked, access is prohibited even if it has been otherwise approved (e.g., a Kiddofy Friend shared the website, or it appears in an approved Collection). Access is also prohibited when Homework Mode is active.
There are several common uses for this feature...
Just as Kiddofy allows parents to approve access to websites temporarily, such as when they want to give their kiddo an hour of fun time, this feature allows parents to temporarily prevent access to websites that are usually allowed.
Example: Temporarily block your child’s favorite entertainment websites so they’re not distracted while doing homework.
Sometimes a content Collection we like includes bits of content that we don’t. This feature allows parents (or educators) to remove unwanted content from Collections they don’t control, such as Collections curated by Kiddofy, a colleague, or friend.
Example: Remove content you don’t like from Collections curated by Kiddofy.
When Homework Mode is activated by a parent, restrictions are relaxed allowing kiddos to browse the Web and find the information they need (such as when doing homework). Parents can now block access to unwanted websites when their child is using Homework Mode.
Example: Block access to unwanted search engines or news outlets, so they’re not used when Homework Mode is active.
Note: Kiddofy always blocks access to websites we know to be inappropriate for all children, such as adult websites. Our list is always growing, though it’s never complete.
Parents have always had the ability to remove unwanted content shared with their children by trusted friends. While a less common use case, this feature extends their control by enabling them to block websites they never want approved for their child, whether shared by a friend or added to a Collection.
Example: Block social media websites, video sharing services, etc., if you think they'll be shared by one of your trusted friends.
Block a Collection with an optional expiration.
Blocking a Collection has the same effect as removing the Collection. That is, the Collection is no longer visible to the child and its content is not approved by the Collection. A great advantage of blocking Collections, versus removing, is that they can be unblocked to easily make their content available again.
Note: Content of a blocked Collection that appears in other approved Collections, or that has been shared with the kiddo, will still be approved for access (unless its website or webpage has been blocked).
Here are some common uses for this feature...
For reasons similar to temporarily blocking a website (above), you might want to temporarily block a Collection. When a kiddo’s approved content is organized in Collections, Kiddofy v2 makes it super easy for their parent or teacher to change their landscape of approved content to match the occasion – work, fun, exploration – by selectively moving their content Collections in and out of availability.
Example: You’d like your child to focus on schoolwork, so you temporarily block all Collections except those needed for school.
A child sometimes has access to a Collection because it has been trusted by their parent or educator. In this case, the Collection can simply be removed for the child. However, Collections can be automatically shared with kiddos by Kiddofy and by a child’s trusted friends. In these cases, the Collection cannot be removed, but it can be blocked!
Example: You prefer your child to not be exposed to news websites (even those designed for kids), so you block Kiddofy’s News & Resources Collection.
We’re excited about the benefits of Kiddofy for children and the ways Kiddofy v2 empowers even greater sharing and control. Try some of the new features (original features too) to see what you think.
Create a Collection of your favorite websites for kids and share it with your children, nieces and nephews, grandkids, and your friends’ kiddos. Or just share with them a webpage / website at a time when something pops-up they will enjoy. It’s as easy as texting it to them, but safe because you’re using Kiddofy.
Try using Kiddofy as your child’s primary browser (see note below). Make Collections of the websites they need and enjoy. See how Kiddofy makes it easy for you to be in control.
Put Kiddofy on an iPad or Mac in your classroom. Create a Collection of the websites you use for instruction and see if you feel more confident your students are safe.
Note: Kiddofy works alongside other browsers or, for full control / safety, you can make it your child’s only browser. Kiddofy does not affect what’s available to kiddos when using other browsers / apps. See our blog post, How To Setup Kiddofy as Your Child’s Only Browser, for more info and instructions.
Thank you for helping kids enjoy the Internet safely!
Kiddofy for Apple Mac and mobile devices (e.g., iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch) is available in the App Store, FREE for families!
