Seeing kids using cutting-edge technology is certainly a relatively recent development. But I guess it isn’t a surprising one. After all, the technology exists, parents own it and (over)use it, and so kids are likely to want to follow suit prematurely. Should this be something we embrace? Or should kids be encouraged to leave technology alone until they’re old enough to fully embrace it?

This Week’s Question…

We want to know, At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? We’re using “technology” as a catch-all term, but we’re really talking about new technology. Television sets have been around for a long time, so they don’t count. But smartphones and tablets are relatively new innovations, so seeing young children using them as though they’ve been around for forever is more surprising.

How young is too young for a child to be handed a smartphone? Would you let your child use a laptop or desktop computer? If so, are they trusted to go online without supervision or is their use heavily guarded to ensure the seedier parts of the Internet are avoided?

Do you encourage your children to play outside or are you happy for them to stay in and play video games all day? If so, do you worry about them playing online and meeting unsavory individuals?

Tell us your story, or recount a story from a family member of friend. If you don’t have a story to tell, just tell us at what age you think kids should be exposed to technology. If indeed you think there even should be a minimum age limit.

Drawing Conclusions

All comments will be digested to form conclusions in a follow-up post next week where we will detail what You Told Us. One reader will be chosen for the coveted Comment Of The Week, getting their name up in lights, the respect of other readers, and 150 MakeUseOf points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards. What more motivation than that do you need to respond?

We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. The questions asked are usually open-ended and likely to necessitate a discussion. Some are opinion-based, while others see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps to fellow MakeUseOf Readers. This column is nothing without you, as MakeUseOf is nothing without you.

Image Credit: Paul Inkles

The post At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [We Ask You] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

There’s a certain novelty factor to tablets, which invariably means that if one person in the household owns one, they’ll be continually fighting off calls to share. Not only is this annoying, it has the potential to end in a family feud if an expensive tablet gets dropped or otherwise destroyed by a younger member of the family.

The answer is, of course, to provide alternative kid friendly tablets; ones that you’re comfortable with them using to their heart’s content. What follows are five Android tablets that fit the bill. If we’re completely honest most cannot really compete with the grown-up tablets, but they’re certainly fit for purpose, and cost a lot less money to buy.

Oregon Scientific Meep!

Specs: 7-inch Screen, 512MB RAM, 4GB Storage (Expandable to 32GB), Android 4.0

The Meep! tablet from Oregon Scientific is, on paper at least, the underpowered option of the five listed here, specifically owing to a lack of RAM. However, the annoyingly named Meep! potentially makes up for it in other ways.

Parents can track their child’s use of Meep! from any computer or mobile device. They can also add virtual funds to the tablet which the child can then spend on apps and other content (all pre-approved, naturally) in the Meep! store. Which could help children learn about the value of money.

Price: Approx US$150

Kurio 7

Specs: 7-inch Screen, 1GB RAM, 4GB Storage (Expandable to 32GB), Android 4.0

The Kurio 7 is a tablet sold with the tagline, “Loved by kids, trusted by parents.” While we cannot vouch for the statement, all of the ingredients are there, with comprehensive parental controls and pre-loaded content the order of the day.

The tablet can be used with or without the protective bumper, and other child-friendly accessories are also available for the Kurio 7. This looks to be a great option for parents who need ultimate levels of control over what their kids do and see online, with a frankly bewildering number of options in this department. These add up to suggest a suitability for younger children.

Price: Approx US$150

Toys ‘R’ Us Tabeo

Specs: 7-inch Screen, 1GB RAM, 4GB Storage (Expandable to 32GB), Android 4.0

The Tabeo is a tablet from Toys ‘R’ Us, which just shows how far into the mainstream the form factor has now penetrated. It comes in lurid colors with a sturdy bumper designed to protect the device if it gets dropped.

The device comes equipped with 50 apps pre-installed — which includes games, books, and educational content — and parental controls designed to always keep the child using it free from harm. Toys ‘R’ Us has also seen fit to produce a number of accessories for the Tabeo, including earbuds and folio cases/stands, giving children ample opportunity to spend their allowances.

Price: Approx US$150

Fuhu Nabi 2

Specs: 7-inch Screen, 1GB RAM, 8GB Storage (Expandable to 32GB), Android 4.0

The Nabi 2 is built with children in mind. It features a robust bumper to absorb shocks from falls, an integrated learning system, a task and reward system, a music library chosen for its family-friendliness, and an app store packed full of pre-approved apps.

Parents will like the wireless syncing, free cloud storage solution, and easy over-the-air updates. The kids will like having a tablet that is clearly for them and them alone, with a range of content that is guaranteed not to include anything unsuitable for youngsters. In terms of features the Nabi 2 is very much on a par with the previous tablets.

Price: Approx US$150

Google Nexus 7

Specs: 7-inch screen, 1GB RAM, Up to 32GB Storage, Android 4.2

The Google Nexus 7 isn’t, as you’re probably already aware, a tablet made specifically for children. However, it’s highly affordable and has made the list for those seeking to purchase a solid Android tablet for an older teenager or a mature-for-their-age child.

This is the perfect choice for those who trust their children implicitly. The Nexus 7 is a grown-up tablet featuring the full Android experience. While it’s solid and sturdy, dropping it onto a hard surface isn’t likely to bring a positive result.

Price: Approx US$220

Alternatively…

Aside from the five Android tablets mentioned above, there are several other options parents looking to buy their children a tablet should explore:-

Buy A Cheap, Generic Tablet — I bought a cheap tablet for myself, and was very pleased with the device I got for my money. If it’s good enough for a 30-something geek, then it’s good enough for a vaguely tech-savvy 12-year-old. Parental controls are going to be lacking though.

Buy Them An Old(er) iPad — Buying your children a brand new iPad probably isn’t an option. They’re expensive devices, and they’re not exactly robust if mishandled and mistreated. But an older, pre-owned iPad may be an option. Yaara turned her old iPad into a cat toy, so the kids really shouldn’t complain.

Buy Them A Phablet Or Smartphone — A tablet may not be the best option for your offspring. It really depends what they (think) they’re going to use it for. Buying them a phablet or smartphone may be a better option as you’ll have the added peace of mind from knowing they’re always contactable.

Conclusions

Tablets can be good tools for children of all ages, helping them get used to technology and often coming equipped with educational apps. They’re also good sources of new content, with games, movies, and music all able to keep the little ones occupied and, if you’re lucky, quiet for a few minutes.

Have you bought or given your children a kid friendly tablet? If so, which one did you choose and why? If not, are you planning on doing so in the future? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject in the comments section below. And we’re always keen to find out if this article proved useful to you, so, please, let us know.

Image Credit: Devon Christopher Adams

The post Not Just For Grown Ups: 5 Android Tablets You Would Let Your Kids Use appeared first on MakeUseOf.

There are wonderful free educational iPad apps out there, many of which cost $10, $20, or even more. I’m not here to say they’re not worth it – you’re going to pay much more for a textbook – but it’s also possible to find cheaper apps that nonetheless provide a great learning experience for kids of all ages. For the list below, I tried to stick to apps that cost $5 or less, and all except one offer a free version too.

Note that the ages in brackets next to each app is the app’s official recommended age range. This does not mean it won’t suit other ages as well, as each child develops in a different pace. Check them out and see what’s best for your child. Who knows, you may enjoy them yourself too!

TinyHands Sorting [Ages 2+]

Unlike the rest of the apps which I had to test on myself, this is one I could test on a real customer – my 2 years old niece. You may remember her from my previous post on educational Android games for toddlers which she helped me write when she was 17 months old, and this time she helped me recognize the one really good game out of all the toddler apps I downloaded. TinyHands Sorting was a huge success.

Aimed at toddlers ages 2.5 and up,  you can safely assume that your 2, 3, and even 4 year olds will enjoy its magic. TinyHands Sorting requires no English skills whatsoever – it’s all about pictures – and is therefore perfect for children who don’t speak English. The goal of the game is to sort all the objects into their correct places. Each screen has a different theme, and requires slightly different skills. The sorting is based of shape, color, size, and other subjects such as seasons, on land/under water, etc.

The free version comes with four different boards, and you can unlock the remaining 9 boards for a $2.99 in-app purchase. This may seem a bit steep for only 12 boards, but your kids will enjoy each board over and over again. Note that younger kids may need to be told what to do on each board at first, especially on the more complicated ones, but they’ll catch on quickly and start playing by themselves.

LetterSchool [Ages 3-7]

LetterSchool is the kind of app I wish I had around when I was younger. It resembles the way I learned how to write, but would have saved my older sister the trouble of creating whole notebooks full of letters for me to trace. In three easy steps, it teaches kids how to write letters and numbers, using just the right gradient to make it super easy to learn.

After choosing a letter or number and seeing how it’s used, kids first get to watch how the letter should be written. In the second step they trace the letter over the existing example, and in the third step they get to write it all by themselves. When all three steps are completed, the child gets a star for that letter. The process includes different amusing effects for each letter, which makes the whole process fun and interesting.

The app comes with three different profiles, so up to three kids can play and keep track of their own achievements. You can also choose between several different fonts.

The free version comes with letters A-E in upper and lower case, and numbers 1-5. $2.99 will get you the full version with all the numbers and letters.

Native Numbers [Ages 4-7]

Math is an important skill, but it can easily become a hated subject due to misunderstanding of basic concepts. Native Numbers takes children through the simple elements of math, starting with rods and moving on to pictures and numerals. Slowly but surely, kids can understand what these numbers are all about, and that there’s more to numbers than just symbols – they actually stand for something.

Native Numbers takes kids through the basic concepts, followed by how numbers relate to each other, how numbers are ordered, and counting. As with LetterSchool, multiple children can play the game on the same iPad with the ability to track progress and achievements for each child separately.

You can even create an online account on nativebrain.com and link it to the app, which will let you add names, avatars, and other information to each child. While signing up for an account, you can choose to have a parent account or a teacher account. The latter lets you track multiple children more easily.

The free version of Native Numbers comes with the first 5 activities. To get access to all of them, $4.99 will get you the full version. Yes, it’s a bit much, but you’ll end up paying much more for a private tutor if your child has a hard time with math, so it could be worth it.

The Opposites [Ages 7+]

For $0.99, The Opposites can provide hours of educational fun for children who know how to read bigger words. The goal of the game is to find pairs of opposites and match them, reaching the level’s goal number of pairs. If the screen fills with word balloons, its game over.

The game comes with 10 levels of increasing difficulty, and can be used by children and adults of any age to expand their English vocabulary. It includes a dictionary for every word that appears in the game, so if you don’t know a word, you’re not left with a mystery – you can define it so you know what to do with it next time.

The only downside is that the game sort of revolves around sibling rivalry. The girl and boy each say a word in turn, and it’s clear they’re always angry at each other. This was sort of a downer for me, bu other than that it’s a fun little game, and a great way to learn new words and their opposites.

Your Turn

This is just the tip of the iceberg for beautiful, free iPad educational apps. It was a hard choice, and there were many that were left out. If you’re trying to get your kids to read, I recommend that you check out these great interactive eBooks. Alternatively, you can look into making your own, personalized iPad game with TinyTap.

Do you have excellent free educational ipad apps your children can’t put down? Do you use certain apps in class to help children grasp the concepts you teach? Share your recommendations in the comments.

Image Credit: Child with tablet image via Shutterstock

The post 4 Wonderful Educational iPad Apps For Kids appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Today we’ve found two gorgeous little kids’ stories which are classics, yet completely modernized by the new interactive format of smartphones and tablets. It’s the ideal way to get modern kids to really enjoy both the idea of reading books and the fun side of interacting with the story digitally. Plus, if you like these interactive stories for kids, you can easily find plenty more by the same developers. Interactive eBooks are one of the best ways to offer interesting, educational activities to digital-native kids. So, take a look!

The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is the first StoryBooks story by Hans Christian Andersen, which is every bit as lovable as the original classic. Kids get to follow the beautifully illustrated story through several 3D pop-up book pages, each with a game or puzzle to work through. Your kids will be mixing potions, saving princes, making music with magical shells, navigating mazes and more. It’s a whole lot of fun, yet still in essence a great kids story book.

Check out this video of The Little Mermaid in action.

Get your copy of The Little Mermaid from Google Play or the App Store for under US$5.

More by StoryToys

StoryToys offer books for kids and adults via the Google Play store, iOS App Store and Amazon app store. For adults, their Classic Book app gives you great retina-display optimized versions of works in the public domain.

For kids, the stories are always very interactive versions of the classics. They resemble a pop-up book, yet are so much more. The experience is 3D and each page has simple tasks or games to play. The stories are read by professional actors and offer Read to Me, Read it Myself, and Autoplay modes. Sound effects and music are also added to further develop the mood of the story.

As well as The Little Mermaid, other books by StoryToys include Puss-In-Boots, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel & Gretel, Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. They also offer a learn to count app called Farm-123 which is aimed at toddlers.

Applications by StoryToys have been downloaded over 2 million times and have won various awards, including “Best Kids App 2010″ and Apple’s App of The Week.

“At StoryToys our mission is to create entertaining apps that children love and parents can trust,” says Barry O’Neill.

Cinderella

Cinderella is an interactive kids’ story designed with toddlers in mind as well as kids up to 8 years old. The application tells the story with interesting music in the background, then lets the kids interact with various objects in an RPG style of play in a pop-up style display. Kids will be able to dance with a prince, sweep the floor, run home and leave their slipper behind.

Get the full version of Cinderella for less than 1€ or check out the Cinderella Lite app for free to see if it’s for you first.

Meanwhile, check out the video of Cinderella in action.

More By CluePop Books

CluePop Books have designed their books to be both educational and interesting, merging fairy tales and interactivity with a great blend of music. They try to make their apps feel as much like a real pop-up book as possible, while also making the best use they can of the smartphone/tablet interface.

As well as Cinderella, stories from CluePop Books include The Ant And The Grasshopper, Thumbelina, and Puss-In-Boots. These interactive stories for kids are all available for Android, iPhone and iPad.

More Apps For Kids

If you’re looking for more great kids apps, take a look at these awesome Android apps for kids, Playtales interactive books, and some more great interactive ebooks for kids. You may also be keen to see how kids with iPads can excel at school and how Amazon Kindle apps have recently improved to make picture books more attractive.

How do you entertain your kids on your smartphone or tablet? Have you found any great book apps you’d like to share?

The post Two Great Interactive Stories For Kids (And More) [Android/iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You’ll find plenty of people lamenting about how wonderful childhood was back then. They’ll talk about memories of playing football or street hockey with neighborhood friends, or making up a make-believe war with friends using sticks as guns and pine-cones as hand-grenades. Maybe in your part of the world, childhood has evolved in similar ways, and most older folks look at the kids of today – with their high-tech gadgetry and conveniences – with disdain.

But is that really fair? I was very much an 80′s and 90′s kid, so my own childhood was sort of in the very beginning of that evolution into a technological society. Most of us 80′s kids knew this – it could be seen in the imagined futures of all of our movies like Back to the Future and Lawnmower Man. The children of my generation played pixelated video games on Atari game consoles, but dreamed of a world with realistic graphics and wireless communications. In fact, those of us of that generation are the parents of today – and we watch our kids enjoying the sort of childhood that many of us could only dream of.

Taking Part In Your Child’s Online World

So why lament the technology and the conveniences? The fact is, these are things that are here to stay. Tweeting, Facebooking and Googling are verbs that are a part of our global culture. Kids are plugged into the net. They’re voice chatting with friends across the world while playing massive online games. They’re instantly sharing photos on services like Instagram, in ways that photographers never would have imagined a couple of decades ago.

It’s a new world that we live in, and parents can either stay in denial and try to fight it, or be a better parent and embrace this new reality and become involved with it alongside your kids. Because in all honesty, there’s a whole lot of joy, fun and relationship-building that can come from actively showing interest int he things that your kids are interested in.

Show Interest In Their Online Success

I have to be honest, I didn’t think up this one on my own. My own father taught me the importance of being involved in the things that your child does online. When I started my own blog and struggled through the first few years of long nights trying to post every day on my own, my first fan was my father. He was there from day one, liking every post on my blog. And then, when I launched the Facebook page to promote my blog, there my father was on Facebook, liking every Facebook post.

So, when I recently learned that my daughter was creating her own digital artwork on the Internet, you can imagine my reaction. Sure, she’s great with a pen and paper, but to see what she’s capable of at such a young age in the digital domain – it makes me very proud as a father, and I want her to know that.

So, like my own dad’s example, I will leave comments on her photos – encouraging her and complimenting her. And of course, I’ll share it on my own Facebook wall, making sure she understands just how proud I am of her creativity.

Sure, this isn’t anything like the world used to be, when kids used to make simple drawings on paper, and hand it to mom or dad with an expectant smile. But, you know what? This new method of sharing creativity is even better. Now, the world can see this young, beautiful mind, and as a parent, you have the opportunity to make sure the world knows just how proud you are of your child.

Challenge Them With Brain Games

When it comes to playing online games, you can fight the losing battle that too many parents try to fight – cutting back on gaming time and constantly nagging your kids to get off the Internet. Or you can suggest doing an online activity with your child. After all, if that’s where they want to be, why not meet them there?

If you find yourself sitting in a home where everyone is on their own computer, isolated in their own rooms, why not send them a text chat and invite them to a game of online chess at a site like ChessFriends?

My daughter and I have always loved playing chess together – on a real board – but you know what, when I’m away from home on a business trip, what better way for us to have some fun? Most of these online game sites have a chat area where you can shoot the breeze and talk about the day at school with them during the ongoing game. It’s a wonderful, low-pressure way of building that relationship, even when your kids are online and seemingly “isolated” from the real world.

Another great online activity that I like to play with my younger daughter – who loves to read and likes everything about words – is Words With Friends on Facebook.

Just like the chess game, we can spend time together no matter where I am or where she is – and with the chat window available we can poke fun at each other during the game.

Again – it’s not so much that these are what we would consider the perfect ways to bond with our kids. However, the reality is that the kids of today are Internet kids. They were on the computer playing toddler games at 3 years old. They were reading stories on the laptop nearly as soon as they knew how to read. Since the Internet is such an integral part of their lives, and probably will be into the foreseeable future, why not become an integral part of that online life as their parent?

It will only be good for you once they have to leave home and head off to college, because guess what – that online game of Words With Friends will be a powerful way for you to reconnect, even when they aren’t home anymore.

Playing Console Games

I think that family game-playing is much more mainstream today than it ever was before the advent of consoles like the Wii. The Wii really introduced the idea of bringing family “game night” over to the television set and making it electronic rather than using a game board.

The truth is, there’s nothing wrong with that. Electronic is the way kids like it these days, so if you can join them in a friendly game of Super Mario 3D Land and make it a fun night of bonding and fun – only good can come out of that.

There is nothing as amazing as hearing your kids laugh or watching them smile as you trash talk with them during a high-energy game of Mario Kart. Seriously – give it a try and just see if it doesn’t bring a bit of laughter and strengthen your relationship with your kids. Don’t be a staunchly old anti-tech parent – join your kids and show them you know how to have a great time.

Embrace Their Online Social Life

As your kids get old enough to get on Facebook – making sure that they friend you (and that they don’t block you from seeing their posts) is a great way to monitor their online activity in a non-intrusive way.

Better yet, it gives you the opportunity to interact with them. They may mumble and not tell you what their day was like at school during supper – but I bet you can get them to joke around with you or open up on their Facebook wall!

Of course, do this sparingly. Follow the rules of Facebook etiquette and don’t overwhelm them with your input after every single post. They’ll get sick of you and start blocking you after a while (who could blame them?)

It’s better to post sparingly. Be positive about the things they post and the jokes or pictures they share. Make them look forward to your replies. The fact is, this is what part of a parent-child relationship looks like these days. You can ignore it and never be a part of it – or you can embrace it and be fully a part of their online life. Trust me – you’re better off being involved.

Online Groups & Pages

If they go so far as to actually establish a community online, like their own Facebook group or their own blog, by all means be a catalyst of encouragement. Make the know that you’re proud of their efforts to build the online community and to connect with friends and family in this way. By becoming a part of their community yourself, you’re showing them not only that you care, but that you’re interested in what they’re interested in.

To my surprise, my daughter launched her own “Technology” group on Facebook – to talk about the latest advancements in electronics and computers. You better believe I was one of her first members.

This obviously isn’t everything there is about a parent-child relationship. I would never suggest that any of the above should replace personal, one-on-one, in-person discussions and bonding. However, when the time comes (and in inevitably will), when people gravitate to their own spaces and log onto those computers, wouldn’t it be nice to know that you can still connect with your child even when they do have their eyes glued to the computer screen?

It’s the world we live in today, and there’s nothing wrong with that. As a parent, embracing it and finding the joy in it can go a long way toward building and maintaining a strong relationship with your son or daughter for many years to come.

Are you involved in your child’s online life? If not, are you open to trying it in order to be a better parent? Share your own creative ideas and your opinions in the comments section below!

Image Credit: Father and Daughter Using Laptop via Shutterstock

The post How To Be a Better Parent In Your Child’s Online World appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Out of 280 votes in total, the votes were divided as follows: 15% use emoji every chance they get, 16% use them very rarely, 18.5% never use emoji at all, 23.5% use them occasionally, when the mood strikes, and 27% use them sometimes, when they’re really better than words.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

According to the comments, many readers think the same of emoji: they’re nice sometimes, and can help express emotions and clarify meanings, but don’t belong in professional emails, or emails in general. Don’t forget to check out last week’s best comment by Rajaa Chowdhury, who won 150 points!

This week’s poll question is: What Device Should Be Available For Children At School, If Any?

This week’s poll is inspired by an interesting discussion we recently had on MakeUseOf Answers. Joseph Videtto asked what devices would be best for classroom use in a school, and received some interesting answers. More answers to this question were posted on our Twitter account, and made me think about the issue further. Each generation had access to different classroom devices while growing up. In my school, we had Windows 3.11 desktop clients running on a network. Nowadays, many schools offer laptops, or even tablets. Which do you think is the best device for classroom use? Or maybe these devices only serve as a distraction?

Why is the device you voted for the best option? Why should schools offer or not offer access to these devices, and at what capacity? Discuss in the comments.

The post What Device Should Be Available For Children At School, If Any? [MakeUseOf Poll] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Doodle Buddy is meant to be fun first. A serious drawing application for sketching works of art, second. There’s no binding for the former; the latter needs the little thing called talent. Doodle Buddy is among the flotilla of creative apps that you find for the iOS platform. It includes titles like Procreate, Artrage, FlipBook, or the incredibly creative TypeDrawing. All these are very feature rich, and paid apps. Doodle Buddy is simpler and free. So, can it squeeze a place on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch?

Introducing Doodle Buddy

A scribble or a masterpiece, both speak for themselves as works of ‘art’. Words can be left aside. So, let me redirect you for a while to Doodle Buddy’s Facebook page. Let me just insert a painting here to give you an idea of what can be done if you know the proper end of a brush…or a finger in the case of Doodle Buddy.

Wow-worthy definitely, and all you need is your finger and some imagination. It’s not only about art, because here’s another picture from the Facebook group that shows how you can bring your artwork to the real world. This artist has used her Doodle Buddy paintings on her pen-holder!

Well, the above two photos have been teasers. Let’s not get overawed here, and forget that in the end it’s all about fun.

Setting up The Easel

As soon as you switch it on, a blank white ‘canvas’ greets you. This is the default background, there are many more which you can select from by clicking on the fourth icon (appears like two photos) from the left. For instance, if you are doodling, you can go for the one that resembles ruled paper.

As you can see, the only irritants are the little ads…but hey, even if the app is free, the developer has to earn for his sweat. You can choose the Hide ads option from within Doodle Buddy for $0.99.

Using Doodle Buddy is a no-brainer. We go back to the main screen and the four buttons (the fifth is for the settings). The first ‘reverse’ arrow button is for undoing any mistakes you make, and in any drawing app, there are quite few as you well know. The second icon is for the Chalk drawing tool. This is the one, you will be using the most to doodle, sketch, and draw. At least, it’s a personal preference of mine. Then, you can choose to go all arty with the Smudge tool, mixing and matching colors from the color tiles below.

The interface is kid-friendly: it’s easy to understand the purpose of the slider which changes the diameter of the drawing tools.

You can also purchase Extras with Doodle Bucks which are then quickly downloaded. Some are “free” like the Color Spectrum, while others can eat up the 170 Doodle Bucks you are given with the install. I have chosen the Color Spectrum and it allows me to choose discrete colors by sliding my fingers across the spectrum.

Doodle Bucks are a promotional vehicle for the game developers. If you want to “earn” more Doodle Bucks, you have to visit a few of their partner sites and see what’s on offer.

Stamps and stencils are the fun parts of Doodle Buddy. They are meant to work exactly as their names suggest. There are the default ones and a stamp pack I purchased with my Doodle Bucks credits. With just a tap on the screen, you can imprint any combination in any number. Then there is the Text Tool with resizable text and four fonts.

Be Playful with Friends

I guess kids of today know what a Wi-Fi network is. Doodle Buddy has a nice little feature which allows you to draw with other friends on the same Wi-Fi network. You can even text chat back and forth with your drawing buddy. I couldn’t try this out for want of a friend, but I trust it works.

Draw Your Own Picasso!

Not quite. But Doodle Buddy does give you the freedom to draw even if you can’t tell the ends of a brush from each other. Thankfully, in the time I had to try out the drawing app, the ads behaved themselves and didn’t infringe on my canvas. Any grouses? Something to wipe out the entire canvas of my failed attempts maybe, instead of going through multiple undos, using the eraser, or selecting a new canvas.

Doodle Buddy is meant to be playful and simple. Is it a candidate for a kid-friendly iPhone or iPod ? Which is your favorite drawing app for iOS? Enough recommendations and we might put it on our Best iPhone Apps page, where Doodle Buddy also resides.

The post Anyone Can Doodle, Sketch, And Paint With Doodle Buddy – Even Your Grandma! [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You may say to yourself that you’ve installed the finest web filter available, and I’m sure that it’s a solid piece of work. However, no filter is impenetrable, and the truth is that the only 100% complete protection against the Internet is no Internet. Alas, we can’t just get rid of the web, can we? (You’d probably have the same success hiding nude models in library books on photography.)

Instead, maybe we can at least explore how filters are bypassed. Below are a few common ways that your children can get around them.

Methodology

Web Proxies

The first method of getting past the school filter that I ever discovered was a web proxy. In-browser proxies like these essentially act as middle men who let you access the outside web. If you go ahead and search Google for them, you’ll probably find dozens. With that said, there isn’t really an effective way to block them. All your child has to do is type in the URL of the website they want to go to in the web proxy’s search box, and they will be sent to it without a hitch. In layman’s terms, proxies allow for the viewing of a desired website through another website’s server.

But let’s say you have somehow managed to sit down and block all the URLs for every single web proxy in the world. (I’ll be the first to say that you can’t, but I’m aware that there are some obsessively dedicated parents out there…) Well, it is possible to create a proxy on your own. It takes a little technical know-how, but there’s a great article on how to do it right here on MakeUseOf: How To Create Your Own Proxy Server In Minutes

IP Addresses

Using the IP address of a website in the navigation bar can get you where you want to go, too. Unless you’ve blocked the specific IPs (or are using a bit of software that handles it for you), this is a possible way of getting around filters. Personally, I’ve tested it, but I learned that most filters can block it. However, there’s a method other than simply typing it in the browser.

For instance, you can create a text file, type in the IP address, save the file with a .html extension, and voilá – the site is perfectly accessible simply by clicking the file.

Disabling Internet Filters

One of the easiest methods of getting past Internet filters is by disabling them! Yep, sometimes it’s that simple. Whether it be going to your browser’s plug-ins or checking out the control panel of your PC, it can be done. Granted, you may have a third-party application which has a password protection, and this is more secure, but not perfect.

Utilizing Another Browser

Personally, I keep a filter for myself to block distracting websites (Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) solely when I’m working or doing research. However, the problem is that the filter is in my browser, and it’s easily turned off. As I mentioned before, it’s not hard to go into my Chrome extension settings and to just click disable.

But let’s say I was a more desperate 12-year-old kid who doesn’t know how to do that. Well, I could easily switch over to Firefox, Opera, or even Internet Explorer. Your ethics may not agree with this, but chances are the history is available in these browsers. If you have no issues with spying, you may want to check it.

Guessing Passwords

People don’t really care about their passwords. We use our family dog’s name, our street and house number, and even our grandmother’s birthday. Every single one of these items is totally guessable, and even if you think your password is like a steel door that blocks the evils of the Internet, it probably isn’t. I’d suggest is using a combination of numbers, letters, and a lot of them. If you want a completely unique password, check out this article from the directory: Passwordgenerator.net: Create Strong, Random Passwords That Are Harder To Hack

Breaking Out The Mobile

Sure, you may have placed a filter on the family computer, but have you taken a look at your child’s smartphone, tablet, or iPod? This is where personal Internet access is going these days, and while you may be confident in your PC’s protection, you can’t always be sure about your child’s mobile device. There are mobile Internet filters, but I cannot personally attest to any of them. See what’s out there, and hopefully, you find one that’s solid.

Using A Media Console

The Internet is really available on anything and everything, isn’t it? Take your Xbox 360, Wii, or even your Smart TV. All of these are capable of accessing the Internet via on-screen browser. Yes, it’s a bit more of a hassle, but it’s possible to look at all kinds of sites through these means. I highly doubt that your child would resort to this since these devices are usually placed in areas where people commonly are passing through, but you never know.

How To Handle It

I’ve already established that it’s very hard to block the Internet. Although you may use one method of prevention, there’s always going to be another way to circumvent Internet filters. Rest assured, my intentions are not to stir up fear or create hopelessness whatsoever. Personally, I think the problem lies elsewhere.

Maybe, just maybe, today’s generation of parents are relying way too much on technology to babysit their children.

I’m not bashing parents, guardians, or adult mentors at all. But I do think that simply taking something away doesn’t teach a child not to use it. Sure, you may have prevented certain activities for now, but most children will grow curious over time. If you are really concerned about the future of your children, then why not look toward it?

Perhaps you could work on building relationships with your kids. This way, your children can trust you enough to know that your decision to block certain sites is a good one, and they will voluntarily stay away from it even when other options are presented before them. This helps strengthen integrity, and it also opens the gateway to gradually explain things as they get older.

On a more extreme method of action, you could always just ditch the filters, have an in-depth discussion, and lay out the harms of certain activities on the Internet (like pornography addiction). Once again, this builds integrity, but it also establishes a certain level of cooperative trust. By doing this, you aren’t sending your child out into the wild. Instead, you are merely helping them learn to walk safely while in the forest.

(This isn’t to say there aren’t just some totally bratty children who will access certain sites. Parents, I know you do everything you can – sometimes there are just kids who are tough to deal with.)

Fighting Authority

Human nature is to fight authority regardless of who it is, and whether you are using an Internet filter to block websites or trying to instill a positive parent-child relationship, it’s not going to come out perfectly. There will always be rocky roads, so don’t be too hard on yourself (or your kids).

How else have kids figured out how to circumvent Internet filters? What other methods of Internet filtering do you use? Have you opted to not use filters and trust your children?

Image Credits: edenpictures, stevendepolo, dwhartwig, Paul Keller

The post Are Your Children Circumventing Internet Filters? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google is asking the young ‘doodlers’ – what would the perfect day look like? That’s where this year’s wining doodle hopes to find its inspiration. So, if you or your child has an inspiring idea for “My Best Day Ever…” it’s time to bring out the crayons. Check out the video below for some more inspiration.

There is a lot at stake here. Anyone would be happy to have their winning doodle featured on the Google homepage. But the winner also gets to take home a $30,000 college scholarship, and win a $50,000 technology grant for his or her school. Participants can download the entry forms from the Doodle 4 Google site and send in completed doodles by mail or online. The last date is March 22. The national award will be announced on May 22, and the winning doodle will feature on the Google homepage the following day. Winner from respective U.S. states will have their art work displayed at the American Museum of Natural History from May 22 to July 14.

Go to google.com/doodle4google, for full contest rules and entry forms. As Google says – Happy doodling!

Source: Google Blog

The post 6th Annual U.S. Doodle 4 Google 2013 Is Calling For Submissions [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For the average kid (I won’t talk about someone like Lim Ding Wen here, though I will use his cute photo as the thumbnail alongside), computers and smartphones are fun tools. Education comes much later. Getting a kid excited about programming might take some doing because logic needs a bit of time to develop. It is imagination and creativity which arrive first. That’s where the crux of these ten tools lie…using creative tools to get children excited about programming.

Just to illustrate the potential of creative teaching that should help to light the fire, here’s a TED Talk by Conrad Wolfram. Slightly unrelated, but do watch it to understand why kids (once, you and me too) lose interest in mathematics. It will also explain the dire need to take instructions out of their rigid strictures and throw them into the real world and everyday living. He advocates using programming to teach math. And thus, make it more fun, instead of forcing them to learn a subject.

10 Tools That Should Help With Learning Programming Creatively

From games to programming tools, from logic to intuition, let’s take a gander at ten tools that should help to show that programming is not all about functions and loops. Here are the honorable mentions (restricted to ten programming tools).

Crunchzilla Code Monster

Learn cool things about: JavaScript

Crunchzilla Code Monster was designed for kids (by Greg Linden, who wanted his kids to learn programming). It is sort of like a barebones WYSIWYG editor with one pane for code and the other pane for looking at what the code does. The Code Monster on top is a friendly ogre who leads everyone along from one lesson to the other. There are 59 lessons in all. You have to keep clicking the speech bubble to move from one to the next. The lessons start easy and are interactive. Variables and parameters are introduced and the colorful objects like boxes and trees are created with JavaScript code. Errors are also caught and explained. Code Monster saves what lesson you are on, so you can stop any time and come back later. As long as you come back on the same browser on the same machine, you’ll get back to your lesson.

What a child might like: JavaScript on the left yes, but simple graphics are created on the right as if by ‘magic’.  A kid learning programming just has to play with the code to see instant colorful results on the right.

Logo

Learn cool things about: Control structures in programming with the help of basic datatypes like words, lists, and arrays.

Logo is one of the oldest educational programming languages. It was created in 1967 for educational use and can be used to teach the basic of computer science. It is well known for its implementation of Turtle Graphics. From its early days, it has evolved and branched out into different versions for all operating systems. For instance, Elica is a Windows implementation which advances Logo into areas of 3d animation. The Turtle Academy is a nice resource for some hands on learning with this functional programming language. There are many resources like Turtle Logo and FMSLogo to tap into.

What a child might like: Teaching the turtle with movement and location commands to draw basic shapes and line graphics.

Scratch

Learn cool things about: Visual interactivity without learning programming syntax.

You cannot argue with 3,000,000 documented projects. Scratch has a worldwide community to boast of and therein lies the richness of learning. With Scratch, you can create interactive stories, animations, and even games. Here, let me direct you to a previous in-depth look into Scratch and just why kids might love it.

What a child might like: The scope to imagine things without learning about complicated programming concepts. Just drag and drop the sprites.

EToys

Learn cool things about: Object oriented concepts with programmable scripts.

EToys is similar to Scratch in that it is a media enriched visual tool for creating cool computer programs. The idea behind the project is to foster creative and critical thinking. EToys runs as a standalone program and also in browsers (with the plug-in) across all platforms. EToys is extensible globally because it is available in several languages and is Open Source. Interestingly, it was first developed at Apple and has been universally used in the One Laptop per Child project.

What a child might like: 2D and 3D graphics supported by text, images, and sound files which can be made interactive and combined with help of easy scripts.

Waterbear

Learn cool things about: Programmable scripts and how a program flows from one step to the next.

Waterbear is a recent development, and was inspired by Scratch. It is similar to Scratch in its visual approach to drag and drop objects (script blocks) and understand the program flow. In the backend, it generates JavaScript but the child does not have to know the syntax. The child has to provide the logic via parameters to assemble the blocks of the program though. One of the differences with Scratch is that the learning environment is the browser instead of a downloadable authoring environment. Waterbear is still not polished (pre-Alpha), but if you are looking for a Scratch alternative, it is worth a try.

What a child might like:  Drag and drop script blocks in the browser. Script blocks are described in simple English.

ToonTalk

Learn cool things about:

The programming environment has the fun element with cartoons and animated characters. The full version is a 126 MB free download and runs on all versions of Windows and Mac (with Virtual PC). The site expresses it best – Inside of ToonTalk’s animated world you will build and run all sorts of computer programs. While learning how to program you will face challenging puzzles, express your creativity, learn new ways to solve problems, and have loads of fun!

ToonTalk version 3.0 is now free.

What a child might like: Play the puzzle games to see how things are built on ToonTalk.

Cargo-Bot

Learn cool things about: How solving a puzzle in the most efficient way develops structured thinking.

Today, it’s more likely a kid will have an iPad in his hand rather than a laptop. Cargo -Bot is actually a free iPad puzzle and logic game which was developed on Codea. You have to ‘teach’ a robot arm on a platform how to move a bunch of crates across 36 different puzzles. Cargo-Bot is more about logic rather than pure programming. But if you succeed (and it is not easy to do so), you will have learnt a lot about structured thinking. Codea itself is a recommended app if you want to learn about developing apps for iOS. It’s a $9.99 investment which should give a return in knowledge if not anything else.

What a child might like: It’s a game that teaches programming without the child realizing it.

Ruby for Kids

Learn cool things about: Ruby.

If you want to make your child learn a specific programming language, Ruby is a good choice. It is an object oriented language and a majority of web apps (e.g. Amazon and Twitter) are also coded with it. It is a simple language because the syntax is comparatively intuitive and has fewer command calls. It works on all operating systems and is free. There is also a huge community out there teaching and learning the language. The screencast tutorials, games, and examples at Ruby for Kids should be a firm stepping stone for adults and kids alike.

What a child might like How you can use Ruby to develop web games.

Raspberry Pi

Learn cool things about: Learn computer programming the old fashioned way; by also understanding the hardware.

For those who came in late, Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that can be programmed to be used just like a desktop PC. It was developed as a low cost solution to teach computer science at schools. Raspberry Pi has many interesting uses and every day the community behind it comes up with a novel one. The Raspberry Pi platform uses Open Source hardware and software and is perfectly placed for young geeky minds to exploit them to the hilt. But how is it being used in schools currently? The Raspberry Foundation site gives us a few clues.

What a child might like: How about learning how to program in an hour?

RoboMind

Learn cool things about: How to program a robot and thus the basics of robotics.

RoboMind is a programming and educational tool with its own scripting language called ROBO. The compact and simple language does not require prior knowledge. The programming objective is to make a virtual robot move around on a two-dimensional grid and exhibit simple actions.  It teaches the learner the common principles of programming that can be applied anywhere. It is available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

What a child might like: Learning the basics of artificial intelligence and later using it on real world robots like the kits available from LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0.

Teaching kids how to code and program is pretty much a part of edutainment now. For today’s society, it is important that its citizens learn to look beyond the comfort of applications and appliances and understand how they really work. We know how to use computers, but we should also know how to program them. So, at stake is all the innovation that has yet to happen. As this in-depth CNN article says, “computer class” can’t be about teaching kids to use today’s software; it must be about teaching kids to make tomorrow’s software.

Do you agree?

The post 10 Tools To Get Kids Excited About Programming appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Kids love to explore, and computers are a great opportunity for that. Programmers from around the world dedicated to education have built a number of freely available operating systems you can use to set up a computer for your kids, free of charge. They (like many operating systems) are built around Linux, and as such are called Linux Distros.

Confused? Don’t be. Just know that these free operating systems are designed to be used by kids, and come with a wide variety of educational software free of charge. Whether you’re a teacher wanting to build a lab full of machines or a parent looking to convert an old desktop into a kid computer, these Linux distros will make the job simple.

Sugar On A Stick

Sugar, you might recall, is the user interface designed for the One Laptop Per Child. What you might not realize is that anyone can use it on any computer, thanks to Sugar On A Stick (a version of Fedora that runs Sugar).

Sugar is built from the ground up, to be a learning environment for kids. It’s unfamiliar for adults used to Windows or Gnome, but kids who love exploring will figure things out quickly, regardless of whether they can read or write. To quote Sugar Labs:

Information is about nouns; learning is about verbs. The Sugar interface, in its departure from the desktop metaphor for computing, is the first serious attempt to create a user interface that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism: learners should engage in authentic exploration and collaboration. It is based on three very simple principles about what makes us human.

As kids learn to better use their computer, more is revealed. Depending on how they use it, kids could ultimately learn the skills to become a programmer. Read more about the philosophy behind Sugar here, if you’re interested.

If you want to check this out, go ahead and download Sugar On a Stick. It comes as a live environment but you can also install it on most computers easily.

Edubuntu

Once known as the Ubuntu Education Edition, Edubuntu is an aptly named version of Ubuntu intended for classrooms. It’s been developed in collaboration with teachers, and includes a wide variety of educational programs in addition to most of what is included with Ubuntu.

Edubuntu is designed to make it easy for teachers to set up an entire computer lab. There are many deployments of it in schools all over the world..

Interested in what software Edubuntu comes with? Check out screenshots of the software in Edubuntu here, and note that while it uses Ubuntu’s Unity interface, it can also work with Gnome’s fallback session. Gcompris seems to be a key player, but there’s a lot more to explore.

A potential advantage of Edubuntu is access to Ubuntu’s software repository, which includes access to most Linux programs. There’s downsides to this as well.

Download Edubuntu if you want to try this out on your machine. Alternatively, you can try Edubuntu out online.

Qimo

This is another kid-friendly distro built on Ubuntu, but with a difference. A dock gives kids quick access to educational games, while a complete menu means you can browse all programs easily.

The idea is for the interface to be easy enough for a 3 year old to figure out, and provided the apps they like reside in the bottom bar I think that’s true. Featuring most of the education programs offered by Edubuntu, Qimo is a simple and lightweight alternative to that system with a kid-friendly cartoon theme. It’s built to be simple, and it is.

Download Qimo now, if you’re ready.

Doudou Linux

With a simple, tab-based menu system and large icons, Doudou makes it easy for kids to quickly launch educational games. It comes with a simple set of software and is built on Debian.

This is one fast system, meaning it could easily give life to an old computer. It includes the standard set of education programs and is simple enough for most kids to figure out quickly.

Read more about and download Doudou Linux.

More?

Do you guys know of any other Linux distros made for children? Please share them in the comments below. I’d love to put together more lists like this in the future.

The post Simple & Friendly: 4 Great Linux Distros For Kids appeared first on MakeUseOf.

It’s not that I want to track my kids everywhere they go, but being a parent that’s very concerned about the state of the world today, I’ve signed up my kids for martial arts classes, we talk to them often about safe behaviors in public, and I most certainly want the ability to narrow down their location if they ever go missing.

The ability to remotely enable and track a cellphone can provide parents with the peace of mind knowing that no matter where their kids are, so long as they have their smartphone on them, that parent will be able to triangulate the location of that child.

Tracking an Android Phone

There are a lot of people out there that are constantly looking for ways to track a cell phone. I know this because ever since I wrote an article about Google Latitude years ago, I’ve received emails almost every month from people asking about how to track a phone in their particular situation – whether it’s tracking a cheating spouse, or the ability to locate a family member through their cellphone.

Unfortunately, or fortunately I guess, considering your position on surveillance and privacy, there really is no way to track the location of someone’s cellphone unless you’re law enforcement. Yes, they can triangulate a cell phone position using cell towers, but as of yet it isn’t possible for a civilian to do that without installing software onto the phone itself.

However, in the case of tracking your kids’ cellphones, you do have access to their phones, so you can install InstaMapper’s GPS Tracker software without any problem.  You’ll also set up an account on the website, and after doing so you can set up the new device and configure the units you want to use to track speed and distances.

 Once you’ve registered the device on the InstaMapper website, you’ll receive a “key” for that device. This is the secret key you’ll need to link up the phone with this device that you’ve registered on the site.

To do this, install the GPS Tracker software on the Android phone, and then type the Device key from the website into the first field.

You’ll need to do this for every phone that you want to track. Register the phone on the site, get the key, and then install GPS Tracker on the phone and type in the code into the settings screen.

You can also update the frequency that the software sends out GPS coordinates on, which is nice if you are on a limited data plan and don’t want the phone transmitting data every 15 seconds. You can actually set the software to issue location updates every few hours or so.

Of course, keep in mind that continuously sending out location coordinates will eat up battery, so this is probably only a good idea if the phone is in a teenager’s car during a long trip, and plugged in during the ride. This will show you the current position and track (and even the speed!) of that car at all times.

If you’re more interested in throwing the phone in your young child’s backpack so that you can track them, the method to use in that case is the SMS activation. You’ll need to select “Allow remote activation via SMS” in the settings menu (see the screenshot above). Once you do that, you can send the following commands to activate the software, retrieve the location, and then close down the software to conserve battery power.

Text the phone:

“GPS_TRACKER_START <device key>” to launch the GPS tracker software

“GPS_TRACKER_FETCH <device key>” to force the software to send out its location to the InstaMapper server at least once.

“GPS_TRACKER_STOP <device key>” to turn off the software.

When the software is running in conspicuous mode, the screen shows the current position, speed, heading and time since the last data upload to the server.

I ran a quick test with the software running on my Android while taking a drive around town, and the tracking software did an excellent job updating the server every 15 seconds from my car, and tracing out the path of my drive in real-time overlaid on top of a Google map.

When you go onto the InstaMapper website to view the track, it shows you a map with the entire path up until the present time, and you can also see a text log of every data update that came from that phone.

 When you click on any of those data points, it highlights that location on the map and displays the information about that point in the trip – including the heading, location and speed traveled at that time. With this software installed on a smartphone inside of a car that a teenager is driving, no teen will ever be able to get away with speeding again!

For programmers, InstaMapper even offer an API key for each device that you can use to integrate device tracking into your web pages or applications.  This could be very useful for a developer that needs the ability to integrate cellphone tracking into their online application or computer program, but doesn’t have the programming prowess to write that feature themselves. The API given to you integrate fairly easily.

 My main goal of using this software is to install it on my kids’ smartphones, and then really hopefully never have the need to use it. However, if you’re ever left wondering where your child is, having the lifeline of being able to reach out and track a cell phone location now can be a real lifesaver. At the very least it can set your mind at ease when you realize that they’ve only gone to a friend’s house after school, and there’s nothing at all to worry about.

GPS Tracker is a great app and it works really well on Android phones. Do you know of any similar apps that work well across Android and Apple platforms? Are there other Android apps that are as good or better? Share your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Blonde girl reading Via Shutterstock

The post Track An Android Cell Phone Location Now With GPS Tracker appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Qustodio is an Internet filtering parental controls program that was suggested to me by one of our MakeUseOf readers, Alicedi. It has a built-in setup guide that helps you to get it up and running without having to learn the ins-and-outs of a new program. And best of all, it’s entirely free!

If you’ve been looking for parental control software that serves as an internet activity filter and monitor, keep reading to see if Qustodio meets your needs and expectations.

Qustodio is a two-part system that may seem confusing at first, but you’ll only need about 5 minutes to see how useful and efficient its setup is. The two-part system is this – Qustodio’s rules and settings are controlled over the Internet while the actual enforcement of those rules are done through a client that must be installed.

When you visit the Qustodio site and click Download, you’ll automatically start to download an installer file. Double-clicking on that installer file will begin the installation process.

The learning curve is mitigated by a Setup Wizard that walks you through the entire process of getting Qustodio ready on your computer. The total time of installation? Less than 5 minutes. If you already have a Qustodio account, you can cut that down to less than 1 minute.

Qustodio needs to be installed individually on every computer that wishes to be protected. However, by design, Qustodio’s control is centralized on the web. This way, you can manage all of the devices tied to your single Qustodio account and adding/removing devices is simple.

The online dashboard is split into two sections, the first of which is an Activity Summary. For every device that you’ve installed Qustodio onto, the dashboard will present you with an ongoing summary of the users tied to the Qustodio account as well as their devices. The tabular setup of the dashboard makes it easy to navigate between and through each user and each device.

What kind of data does Qustodio track? Here’s what I can glean from a first glimpse of the dashboard:

• last online time,
• total Internet time for the day,
• Internet usage over the past 14 days,
• overview of web browsing activity,
• overview of search engine activity,
• overview of social network activity,
• which devices were used.

How often is Qustodio’s summary updated? On average, the page says that you can expect the data to refresh once every 3 hours. I’m not sure if there’s a way to manually push an update, which would be a useful feature. As a parental control program, the centralize dashboard is extremely well-designed and deserves applause.

Now, there are two ways that a parent can watch over their children and control what they view on the Internet. On the one hand, we’ve got monitoring which we’ve just discussed. The other method is to preemptively block certain websites before the child can view them–or in other words, the typical web filter.

The web filtering options that are provided by Qustodio aren’t anything special, but they have everything you’d expect:

• Website Categories: With the website categories filter, you can set which type of websites your child can view or can’t view. Educational, yes. Pornography, no. But Qustodio has a third option: alert. With this, the category won’t be fully blocked but will let the parent know whenever a website in that category is visited.
• Website Exceptions: If you want minute control over individual websites, this is where you do it. You can allow websites that would otherwise be blocked or you can block a site that would otherwise be allowed. The alerts work here, too. This is a great feature for fine-tuning the outliers that are missed by broad website categories.
• Uncategorized Websites: This is a simple toggle for whether or not uncategorized websites should be automatically blocked or allowed.
• Safe Search: Qustodio can analyze and manipulate search engine results to remove certain sites and links that lead to inappropriate or offending content.

Another great feature of Qustodio is the ability to limit a child’s time spent online. There are a number of ways to do this, each with its own advantages.

With the Internet Usage Schedule, you can set a schedule that automatically enables and disables Internet on a particular child’s devices. The schedule is thankfully easy to set but you can only work in 1-hour blocks.

The second way to control Internet usage is through the Time Allowance feature, which grants the child a set number of hours per day on the Internet. Once those hours are used up, he’s out of luck until the next day. The time allowances are broken down into Weekdays and Weekends; there is no way (that I know of) to set a day-by-day time allowance.

What happens when the child runs out of Internet time, or when he’s on the computer outside of his schedule? Qustodio allows you to determine what happens:

• block Internet access but allow computer usage,
• or block Internet access and lock the computer,
• or send an alert when the child’s time limit is breached.

For a free program, Qustodio is quite impressive. I’ve played around with a number of web filters and parental control software over the years and Qustodio’s first impression is by far the best. It has become my primary content filter ever since I upgraded my router to IPv6, which is incompatible with what I was using before, OpenDNS FamilyShield.

Whether you have a handful of rascals that you need to watch over or you just want a simple way to filter what you see, Qustodio will get the job done. It is most definitely worth a try, at least.

The post Qustodio: Free Parental Control Software For Internet Access [Windows] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Things are pretty different today, and any kid who knows how to use a computer can easily get and use an email account. If those email accounts are unsupervised, it can be rather disquieting for the parents, who have no idea who their kids are corresponding with. Yes, you can prevent your kids from having email altogether, or let them have a Gmail account while keeping an eye on what’s going on, but there’s also a different solution – specialized email apps for kids.

These kid-friendly apps are much more interesting for children to use, and give parents much more control over who their kids can email and what content they’re exposed to. Curious? Keep reading to find some great email options for the kids in your life.

Maily [iPad & Web]

Maily is a beautiful email iPad app and web interface which every kid will love to use. It’s super easy to set up; as a parent, you need to create an account, which you can do using Facebook or your email address. You can then proceed to creating an account for your child (or children), each with his/her own name and photo. All of this can be done through the iPad. You can then start adding contacts to your child’s account. Those accounts will be the only ones your kid will be able to email, and each of them will also have to create an account on Maily in order to reply.

The email interface itself is very creative, with lots more than just plain text. Maily’s “compose” interface includes colored pencils and paint brushes, multiple stamps, and even the ability to take photos and include them in the email. It’s all very friendly and easy to use – even a 4 year old will use it with joy. When an email is sent, the parent account receives a regular email alerting that an email has been sent. The contact also receives a regular email notification, from which they can click “Reply” to compose a message through Maily’s web interface.

If you own an iPad, Maily is a brilliant solution, and one that’s really fun and easy to use. It can give your kids independence to email family and friends, without you losing control over the correspondence. Best of all, it’s complete free! Watch the video to see Maily in action.

http://vimeo.com/maily/intro

Kids Email [Web, iOS]

If you have older children, or are looking for a solution that provides more control, check out Kids Email.  Kids Email is free to try for 30 days, and if you like the service, you can get a paid account for around $3 per month. If you need fine-tuned control over your children’s email activity, it’s well worth the money.

To start, create a parent’s account on kidsemail.org. You can then add children accounts, each tailored exactly to the child’s needs. For starters, you can choose between the regular interface, suitable for younger kids, and a more mature interface for older kids. You then have a long list of security settings you can configure, giving you the exact amount of control you need for each child. For example, you can set it up so a child can send or receive emails only to and from the approved contact list. You can get copies of both sent and received emails, if you wish. You can choose whether emails include links and attachments, and which kinds of attachments, and even filter out bad words from the emails your children receive.

Each child gets his or her own email account at ‘username@kidsemail.org’. They can use the Kids Email child login area to log in to their email accounts, and use it as any other email interface. They can choose their own favorite theme, create email folders, and generally do pretty much anything they would be able to do with regular email – only supervised. There’s also a free Kids Email iOS app, so they can even use email on their iPhones, if they own one.

Other Options

If for some reason none of these two great options are right for you, there are other services you can check out:

1. ZooBuh! – A similar tool to Kids Email, with the ability to also restrict times in which your kids are allowed to use it. ZooBuh! costs $12 per year per child. There’s no free version or trial version.

2. K-Mail from KidSurf – K-Mail is an kid-only email service offered by the makers of KidSurf, a kid-only browser. K-Mail is free to use as long as your child emails back and forth with other kids on K-Mail. If you want the child to be able to communicate with external addresses as well, it costs $10 per year, in which case they will only be able to communicate with those on their friends list.

3. Kid Safe Mail – This is a very extensive parental control tool, with multiple email domains, elaborate options, and both POP3 and webmail options. The pricing is a bit complex, but you can see the full table here. There’s no free version or trial version.

What Do You Use?

Do your children use email on a regular basis? How do you keep things under control? Do you know of any other cool tools that can help? Tell us all in the comments.

Image Credit: Child with computer image via Shutterstock

The post Keep Your Kids Safe With These Excellent Email Apps For Kids appeared first on MakeUseOf.

We’re giving away free copies of 4 Elements to lucky readers this week valued at $500 (it normally retails at $19.95 for the premium PC/Mac version). So, find out more about the game by reading this article and head to the bottom of the post for details on how to enter the giveaway.

The Story Of 4 Elements

The story behind 4 Elements itself is very kid-friendly: There’s a kingdom in trouble because the magic four elements have been corrupted by an evil force. You need to restore the kingdom to glory by unlocking four ancient books of magic and collecting 16 cards. But that’s just the story that keeps it all together – there’s so much more to it.

Playing 4 Elements

The four ancient books divide up the four stages of difficulty in the game. There are four cards to be found within each stage and these have a matching game to be played for each of them. There are also times where you need to play a mini-game searching for objects in a room in order to progress.

The most memorable part of 4 Elements is in the main game, where a very simple idea gets progressively more difficult and frustrating. The aim is for you create a path for lava to get through to a shrine. You do this by connecting up matching elements in lines and dislodging the dirt in the way. It progresses to layers of dirt, stone and ice blocking the path and helps you by adding tools like arrows, spades and bombs to help clear the way. It’s so simple – just keep matching elements in lines. And yet, you’ll eventually hit a snag and realise that you can’t just stop there. You have to just finish this bit…

Check out this video of 4 Elements in action to really get a feel for it.

Kids Will Love 4 Elements – And So Will You!

The graphics in 4 Elements are quite detailed at times and really work to pull the main story of the game back into the foreground. Kids will love the fantasy characters and beautiful introduction.

As the game is simple to start, it’s easy to get kids playing by themselves. A friendly fairy will introduce the player to each new tool and difficulty as they become relevant, so players gradually come to know more about the game and get better at it. It’s a game which can be played by kids who don’t have a lot of co-ordination yet and who aren’t yet very good at games – and it will help them to get better! It takes quite a bit of playing before the time-limit becomes a problem for even the slowest player.

The 4 Elements game is available in multiple formats for a variety of operating systems and also online.

We’re giving away 25 copies of 4 Elements for both Windows and Mac platforms. Join the giveaway to be in the running to win one!

How do I win a copy?

Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form

Please fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner.

The giveaway code required to activate the form is available from our Facebook page, Twitter stream and Google+ page.
 

Step 2: Share!

You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post!

(Note: no points will be awarded.)

Alternative entry method: Use your points!

Exchange your MakeUseOf points for an entry into the competition. First, create a MakeUseOf account, earn points and exchange your points for an entry! Learn more about our Game system and Rewards program.

Sorry, the competition is now over

By participating in this giveaway, you agree to the giveaway rules.

This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, August 31st. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

Interested in sponsoring a giveaway? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via the form at the bottom of this page.

The post 4 Elements: Incredibly Fun Puzzle Game For Kids [Giveaway] appeared first on MakeUseOf.