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Finally: A Porn-Free Search Engine for Kids

Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 09:00 CST

CINCINNATI, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The facts are clear, the trends irreversible. 87 percent of children are regularly on the Internet, a weaned- on-the-web generation that uses search engines as its primary research tool. But one in four kids accidentally encounters pornography on the web, with search engines as leading gateways. The average age of a child being exposed to pornography for the first time on the web is 11. Studies find that only six percent of the web is even relevant for schoolwork.

netTrekker home, a search engine released today by Thinkronize, Inc., based here, solves these problems. It brings the full promise of the Internet home to families seeking peace of mind through safe, pornography-free text and image search, and to time-challenged students needing resources to excel in an increasingly competitive academic environment. netTrekker home is based on an award-winning in-school version used by 7 million students in 11,000 schools nationwide. A monthly subscription costs $9.95 for unlimited access, available at http://www.nettrekker.com/, where a 14-day free trial is offered.

The best way to test netTrekker home's effectiveness is to pit it against traditional search engines. A Google search for the word "synonym" for a homework report delivers something shocking: pornography sites, often among page one results. The same search on netTrekker home returns only clearly- organized, pornography-free links, relevant for research and sorted by reading level. Each result is tagged with the evaluator's report, rating it on multiple measures, and providing full accountability to parents.

"Kids don't have to work to find pornography on the web. It finds them, in ways that parents may find shocking, like traditional search for even the most innocent material," said Dr. Donald Jacobs, Founder of the Center for Applied Technologies in Education at the University at Buffalo. "netTrekker home takes the danger, uncertainty and irrelevance out of Internet search for homework. And, importantly, netTrekker home helps students and parents get quick access to important information and resources that are directly related to homework."

netTrekker home is about the right results, not commerce. A Google search on "Ethan Allen" (with some 2.1 million "hits" to wade through) would suggest there was a store before there was a man. The same search on netTrekker home for a middle school student returns 15 clearly sorted, information-rich, on- target results, none directly linking to the furniture store chain.

netTrekker home is the first search engine of its kind available for home purchase. It marries a hundreds-strong team of educators, proprietary technology and some 180,000 websites to produce search results that are pornography-free, and relevant only for schoolwork. From math to foreign languages, from science to social studies, current events, the arts, and much more, netTrekker home delivers. It goes way beyond traditional search, with features like multi-disciplinary timelines, famous person search, results tailored to different reading levels, and other tools inviting deep exploration.

"netTrekker home works better than traditional search for schoolwork for two reasons: people and technology. No matter how powerful technology becomes, there is no substitute for people when it comes to judging relevance of content, particularly when it's information for our children," said Christine Willig, Thinkronize's President. "Our network of hundreds of educators, all specialists in specific subject areas, continually searches the Internet for sites that are pornography-free and truly helpful for schoolwork. Our technology takes it from there, further scrubbing the Internet for unsafe sites, removing 'dead links' and delivering only information that matters to students."

netTrekker home delivers way beyond search. Many results are tagged with a small timeline icon. Clicking on it returns a multidisciplinary, graphical timeline, showing how prominent events, people, arts and more coincided with and coalesced around that subject, providing depth, context and inviting deeper exploration. Every detail on the timeline is itself clickable, providing search results relevant to it.

A "Famous Person" feature makes it fast and easy to find deep detail on important figures, from the famous to the obscure, through a search-building tool that enables search around specific parameters; even if a person's name is unknown to your child, netTrekker home stands a good chance of delivering. A dictionary "hot key" makes every word in a netTrekker home result clickable, to return that word's definition -- a critical feature for students for whom English may not be the primary language.

netTrekker home's developer, Thinkronize, is dedicated to enhancing the education of youth through technology. Visit netTrekker home on the web at http://www.nettrekker.com/, or call toll-free at 877-517-1125.

About Thinkronize

Thinkronize, an Internet developer of award-winning K-12 educational products, was founded by Robert Reinders in July, 1999 and grew out of a commitment to enhancing teaching and learning with the Internet and standards- based online resources. The company's flagship product, netTrekker classic, the trusted search engine for schools, was launched in October 2000. Since the launch of netTrekker classic, Thinkronize has enjoyed steady growth, industry recognition and awards. The netTrekker in-school product suite includes netTrekker d.i., which organizes online resources by readability level to meet individual students' learning needs and also includes ELL content. Thinkronize serves some 7 million students in more than 11,000 schools in 48 states; the netTrekker product suite has been adopted by key districts nationwide. For more information visit http://www.thinkronize.com/ or phone 877-517-1125.

First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact:

netTrekker

CONTACT: Rob Bratskeir, +1-646-498-0049, or rbremote@yahoo.com, or DonnaMcMullin, +1-513-731-4090, or dmcmullin@nettrekker.com, both of Thinkronize,Inc.

Web site: http://www.nettrekker.com/http://www.thinkronize.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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