Web is kid-proofing for summer

By Elizabeth Wiese, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctd013.htm

As summer heats up and children spend more time inside and online, several World Wide Web sites are geared up to steer them to kid-friendly destinations and give parents less to worry about.

Lycos Monday launches a new version of its search engine called SafetyNet, which automatically filters out pornographic and   hate-filled sites. SafetyNet http://www.lycos.com is not a filter program like Surfwatch and other installed programs so kids can always just use a different search engine to find off-limit sites.

But it serves as nice (and free) buffer for younger children, says Jan Horsfall, Lycos vice president of marketing.

Also new is DIG, Disney's Internet Guide. This search engine at http://www.dig.com leads kids to Web sites and activities specifically tailored to their interests.

Other kids' search engines include http://www.surfmonkey.com and http://www.yahooligans.com.

Beyond commercial sites are educational ones that offer exciting learning opportunities:

Kids can explore the universe at NASA's http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov

ALA Kids sites

National Air and Space Museum http://www.nasm.edu for a Star Wars tour narrated by James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader.

Can't get the kids to the great outdoors? Send them to http://www.nps.gov, where they can take a geological tour of the national parks.

http://www.pbs.org/kids to find Mr.Rogers, the Sesame Street gang and even the Teletubbies.

''Think of them as online camps,'' says Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Center for Media Education.http://www.medialit.org/