Download, comment and WIN to keep kids safe online

Last week, I got acquainted with the Banana Rap Song, photos of sun bears and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (by way of the Little Einsteins) on Kidzui.

I know Kidzui sounds like something you might say while you do a karate chop. But really, it's a cool program that lets kids go online safely.

You download and install the program, and your child can create an avatar for his or her account. Then the fun begins! The program's colorful, user-friendly appearance directs kids to places they are most likely to visit online, from music videos to homework help. The best part is everything available through Kidzui has been screened as appropriate for kids. Parents and kids have a separate login, and parents can view their child's account activity. With a paid subscription, kids can tag sites they like and interact with other kids in the Kidzui community.

So this is how you can win a six-month subscription to Kidzui!

Kidzui is looking for feedback on how to make the program better, and they're looking for parents to download Kidzui and comment on what they might change. Kidzui is having a contest to see which blog gets the most comments and the most insightful comments on improving the program, and also who has the best Twitter conversations about it. So, if you download Kidzui and come back to this post to say how you would make it better, everyone who comments might win! It's a very cool deal.

My son (who turns two and a half on Saturday, sniff sniff) is a bit young to use all the functions on the computer, and he doesn't really need a lot of screen time anyway. But he likes seeing pictures and videos of animals, and also anything to do with characters like Diego and Winnie the Pooh. (On Kidzui, I found out how bad I suck at doing a My Friends Tigger and Pooh online jigsaw puzzle.) The "community" column on the right side of the screen is pointless to him, and probably will be for a few years yet. So I wonder if one way to improve the program would be to offer a version for younger children. Also, a few times, (cue horror-movie music) we had to use the horizontal scroll bar! Some sites didn't fit within the Kidzui screen panel, and we had to scroll over to see the whole site screen. I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about this, but . . . . I loathe horizontal scrolling.

If you're interested, I hope you'll download Kidzui, try it out with your kids, and come back here and comment! It could mean a free subscription for you and everyone else who comments here.