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Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
Surf Monkey on the Web, on your computer (Oct. 1 '99 issue)
Surf Monkey has just added some new innovations that make the whole service more flexible and broadly appealing. It used to be just a filtered kids' browser-plus-environment that parents would install from a CD-ROM they sent you. It was a very immersive, imaginative environment that, since we first reviewed it over a year ago, seemed more for the low end of its 2-12 targeted age range. The Surf Monkey Web site was basically a marketing and ordering site for the browser.
Now the Surf Monkey site is really for kids (new feature No. 1), one that we feel will appeal even to many 7-to-10-year olds. Called the Surf Monkey Kids Channel, one of its best features is its "white list" of some 3,000 child-appropriate sites: educational sites like National Geographic, too, not just kid sites. There are also games, polls, contests, chat, bulletin boards, email (we still need to check out the safety of the communications pieces), and The Mall. The mall is basically a directory of product categories, a page for each category (toys, books, technology, fashion, etc.). Each page features two or three products, which are ads. Click on the product name, and you go directly to, for example eToys.com or dELiAs.com. It's a smart way for Surf Monkey to bring in revenue without the hassle of orders, fulfillment, or teaching kids financial responsibility (which child-targeting e-commerce sites are doing these days).
Kids can go anywhere from the new Surf Monkey site if they surf beyond its approved links, so new feature No. 2 closes the loop: The Surf Monkey Bar, which can be downloaded from the site, adds filtering technology that parents can turn on or off with a passworded toggle switch. When it's on, it blocks both inappropriate sites and communications with strangers. The technology sounds interesting, and we'll look into the safety elements of both the site and the "monkey bar" in a future issue. Stay tuned.
The other kids' service that comes to mind as we look at Surf Monkey is Zeeks.com, which we reviewed last June ("Kids portal + filtering"). The Monkey's new clothes make it look a lot more like Zeeks (could be a trend). Tell us which one you like better or tell us about your favorite safety resource and why you like it - via feedback@netfamilynews.org.
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