There are literally thousands of websites meant for children on the internet today. Parents, grandparents, teachers and other adults with responsibility for children’s safety want to be sure that the sites children visit are safe and worthy of the time invested in them. Ask Granny has some guidelines to a good website—ones children and grandchildren should use with no fear of safety issues.
1) Use a reputable search engine to find sites such as Google, Yahoo or Yahooligans for children. A .com site is for commercial use, a .gov means the site is overseen by the government, and .edu means it is an educational site.
2) Each website should be clearly named. The individual, group or organization sponsoring it should be clearly understood.
3) The site’s purpose should be clearly stated. Is the site’s goal to sell, entertain, educate or persuade?
4) The design should be well-done and orderly. It should be pleasing to the eye, but more importantly it should be easy to navigate with clear graphics and easy to follow directions.
5) The site should be interactive with clear instructions.
6) It should be free.
7) The content must be meaningful. The site should outline topics covered, add links to more information and the subject matter should be appropriate for the age group.
8) Be sure to monitor the websites children use.
For more information on websites for children see:
