from Hacker News

Kagi for Kids

by ryanjamurphy on 3/31/25, 6:47 PM with 166 comments

• by Roritharr on 3/31/25, 7:43 PM

  What Kagi or anyone could work on, is an actually working version of YouTube Kids.

  I literally Pi-Hole Blocked all of YouTube after my son started reading the Bible after a Minecraft Influencer started preaching throughout most of his videos to the point my son became a bit too much interested in the topic.

  Not that I'm a rabid atheist or would deny my child such a thing, but if THAT can enter my 8yr olds brain via his short allowed time where he can browse by himself, i'm worried what else is coming his way through it.

  I'd love to give him access to valuable videos between rules I describe by natural language and can test myself, but nothing like this exists.

• by viraptor on 3/31/25, 7:37 PM

  > to ensure children are not exposed to harmful content.

  Strong claim. I like the idea, but wish they were more realistic about what they can provide. If you ever get a Reddit result you're likely one click away from harmful content.

  That said, I like the lenses applied in this case. It may be the best we can get today in terms of search filtering.

• by jmathai on 3/31/25, 8:24 PM

  Kagi seems like a cool company - I'm not a customer yet. I'd like there to be technology companies I can trust - perhaps like Kagi.

  I have been really happy with NextDNS though. My kids, not so much. But hey ... that's parenting.

• by ryoshu on 3/31/25, 8:31 PM

  I read this as "Kaggle for Kids" which also seems like a lovely idea.

• by dcchambers on 3/31/25, 8:22 PM

  Disclaimer: I am a happy paid Kagi subscriber and absolutely am an advocate of their product. I really hope the company makes it work financially because we NEED something like it.

  I have two young kids of my own (4, almost 2) and have so far been able to avoid the issues of letting them free roam on the net, but it's obviously something that's coming. This was not something I ever paid attention to in my youth but now as a parent the open internet completely terrifies me. And I say that as a core millennial that basically grew up with the internet.

  The current status quo of "kids friendly" content (eg YouTube Kids) is mostly awful. I would still never let my young kids browse something like that without supervision.

  I am appreciative that Kagi knows this is an issue and is investing into the area.

• by philips on 3/31/25, 10:08 PM

  I love Kagi and I think the basic ideas here are a step in the right direction. I would really like to see the curation be social so I can share and collaborate with friends and my kids school. As it is I help my kid use an EOL Chromebook to find Origami designs but it is always side-by-side and I have tight NextDNS controls to keep weird weird ads away from my kids.

  On this topic I have been drafting and collecting thoughts on internet and digital media curation the last few nights. Here is what I have so far:

  Thesis: The role of children's teachers and caretakers in curating an environment for children to learn and grow is more important than ever with the overwhelming variety of books, videos, shows, etc all of varying quality and alignment with caretaker and child interests. However, curation in the digital age is also more difficult than ever. The web is a collection of walled gardens which give parents limited and inconsistent controls over what the child will see once inside the walled garden. And, adding controls on-top of a walled garden is impossible or only possible by very computer savvy users (e.g. YouTube frontends).

  What are ways care takers can practically and easily curate today?

  Examples

  - YouTube Kids: https://abparenting.substack.com/p/effective-youtube-kids

  - Jellyfin or Calibre for ebooks

  - Open WebUI with a custom system prompt for kids

  Counter Examples

  - Netflix, Disney, Amazon, etc: difficult to non-existent curation controls - all or nothing

  - Kindle Kids: there are controls but for Library books the process is 12+ clicks between the Libby and Kindle app: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/can-you-share-kindl...

  "Our young students are just beginning to develop their powers of discernment. By curating a good library collection, we can help them learn to weigh the merits of a few authoritative works on a subject rather than plowing through hundreds of internet sources of uneven quality. And while a computer search is undeniably efficient, we firmly believe that browsing a shelf of books is more rewarding and more educational. It deepens students' understanding of organizational principles, brings them unexpected discoveries, and rewards patient exploration rather than offering instant gratification"

• by ilrwbwrkhv on 3/31/25, 7:39 PM

  Ok this is excellent. If I can trust Kagi for kids, I would pay through the nose for this.

  The internet is wildly useful but it's just filled with so much trash and thanks to google going horribly terribly south, search doesn't work anymore.

  Which means kids are no longer able to actually have the joy of surfing the web and finding very interesting things to read.

  So the main question that I have is, is there a guarantee that bad sites will not show up here?

• by yzydserd on 3/31/25, 8:42 PM

  > Family Plan … We strive to provide a search engine that prioritizes the well-being of your loved ones, particularly the most vulnerable ones like children, by offering an ad-free and safe browsing experience. We offer two different group plans based on your specific needs.

  I read it a few times and saw only one plan. What’s the second one? If it’s the Team plan, that seems like poor copy.

  (Kagi Ultimate subscriber here)

• by an_aparallel on 3/31/25, 8:08 PM

  Lol...i see why kids are shunning "online"... The internet was exciting as a kid (for me) back in the nineties specifically because it was the wild west: unique takes, mp3s, software torrents, private p2p chats with strangers around the world, porn, and most importantly...something my parents had no clue about.

  In 2025, id definately prefer kicking dirt as a kid.

• by skyyler on 3/31/25, 7:24 PM

  Is it easy to disable the Quick Answer "feature"?

• by kylehotchkiss on 4/1/25, 5:22 PM

  Wow, it’s be really great to block both CNN and Fox from parents searches. Maybe Facebook and TikTok too.

• by koakuma-chan on 3/31/25, 8:15 PM

  As a person of the age of majority, I would always choose the poop avatar over something as basic as ball or duck.

• by jasonpeacock on 3/31/25, 7:37 PM

  > Story behind the Poop Avatar

  I love it

• by password4321 on 4/1/25, 1:08 AM

  Amazon Kids+ is a competitive option for a closed, moderated ecosystem for younger age groups.

• by mvieira38 on 3/31/25, 8:00 PM

  Lmao the longest section of this is about the Poop Avatar

• by facile3232 on 3/31/25, 7:46 PM

  Content for kids strikes me as something you'd curate around an experience and value system you sell to parents. I can't imagine anything else would work very well.

  Granted, this doesn't mean we shouldn't try to build filters. I'm just rather pessimistic about a hands-off experience with such software.