Internet Websites that you let you kids surf

In our house the computer is always on and the one that our daughter has access to (before you ask controls are on so there is NO way she would see anything inappropriate) has already become her best friend (next to the dog and tv). Can anyone recommend any good sites for their kids? We know the obvious ones that are Dora etc based but how about some others? Perhaps ones that help the child develop their reading, memory etc?

My daughter is 7 and we allow her on:
Webkinz.com
Noggin,
PBS
Nick Jr.
Disney

She loves the webkinz site, so after she earns her time on the computer, that is where she visits the most. Barbie.com is another good one, but you have to pay for a premium subscription, so I won’t do that.  My husband set up a log on on my computer for her and she only has access to certain sites…

That Webkinz site drove me nuts. I don’t know if it was my computer, or if it was the syrupy-sweet voice that narrated the site, but I was glad when my daughter decided that she was just happy with the doll and didn’t really care about the website experience.

My kids like Webkinz.com, Ty.com, AmericanGirls.com, BarbieGirls.com, and Barbie.com. For more educational fun, they use Starfall.com.

My kids like iknowthat.com. . .full of fun educational games. Also, the Worldbook Encyclopedia for kids is cool. . .it is a subscription based service but you can sign up for a month or week or something to see if you like it.

We also love National Geographic Kids, bill nye the science guy, ology.com (it’s the American Museum of Natural History’s site for kids), the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s site for kids. . .and then I let my kids play online chess through yahoo if me or my husband is there.

We had a bad experience with Furry Paws when my oldest was twelve, so I’d stay away from that and similar sites where people can private message your child. Even if you are in the same room, it is easy to grow complacent. That is what happened to me. I also trusted her and didn’t walk past her shoulder and see what she was doing as often as I should have. Plus, she was being sneaky, of course. I had all the blocks on, etc., and someone told her how to get around them. I found the emails where they were describing how she could get around my controls. I have no way of knowing if it was actually another kid or a pedophile. She was chatting with this person via instant messenger while I had controls that were supposed to block her from any type of IM or chat. We took the computer away from her for about two years other than for school work exclusively. It was scary. I tried to contact Furry Paws about my concerns and to make sure this person wasn’t a predator targeting other kids on the site. The owner got extremely snotty with me. I couldn’t believe it.

For sites I would recommend, I always really liked the Discovery Channel site for kids and Enchanted Learning worksheets and games. I also really liked BillyBear4Kids.com.

Yikes! What good are security measures parents can place on websites if there are a bunch of wackos trolling around, telling kids how to get around the limitations? So scary! I will absolutely be careful about sites where people can send private messages. Thanks for the tip!

I was going to mention that. . .it’s not that hard to get around parent controls sadly. My best advice is to keep the computer in a moderately public place. We actually don’t allow computers with internet access into bedrooms. . .so we have an office and another computer set up in the kitchen. While that’s not a cure all, I think it does help. I would personally suggest not allowing any social networking.. .but like Lori said. . .that’s what she did and well. . .kids are sneaky.

For me, the big challenge is to stay on top of all the technology so I can use it too.  I hate to admit it, but I feel like my grandma when we first bought her an answering machine. LOL

We have created separate user profile for our kids in our computer, of coarse with no administrative rights. Also we have installed KidZui on our computer. This is a very usefull program and help us to control the list of websites our kids can access. The program logging each activity and after I can see it. I reccomend this program to everyone.

I still always supervise any “browsing” with my daughter. She is allowed to play on webkinz and other favorite sites unsupervised since they have no “chat”.

Some other “safe” high quality sites include:

Nasa Kids - http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/

Seussville - Dr. Seuss activities/games http://www.seussville.com/

Scholastic books - learn about favorite books, authors and play games at http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/

Here is a complete list of government sites designed for kids with information about health, nutrition, government and other useful resources:

http://www.kids.gov/k_5/k_5_fun_activities.shtml

Kidsmaps also has a collection of great links to sites for kids:

http://www.kidsmaps.com/