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Children's Educational Network
Dreamworks
August 2007.
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Save Me, Shrek!

For parents, the idea of a huge, green, eyeball-jelly-on-toast-eating monster protecting their kids from the Dark Side of the internet (to mix our movie metaphors) is very appealing. The most recent entry into the safe internet browser market, the Shrek Browser for Kids promises to solve the dilemma parents face in allowing their children access to the internet. Along the way, however, it gets weighted down with a lot of baggage that drags it back down into the swamp.

The Shrek browser, offered by the Children’s Education Network, bundles a few safe surfing concepts with an online children’s club called Club Tuki and wraps it all in layers of Shrek.

Before you can tell what the Shrek browser does well, you have to start by defining what it is actually trying to accomplish.

There are two different missions for “content blockers” and they are pretty different. Mission One is trying to keep inappropriate content from innocent eyes. For example, if a child (generally younger) is searching for information for a school project, their parent wants to make sure that unrelated and inappropriate sites are not generated as search answers. Mission Two is trying to block access to sites that children (hopefully older) are trying to access intentionally.

The Shrek browser can accomplish both of these missions, but its “theme” positioning, by taking advantage of the huge recognizability of Shrek and its heavy promotion of Club Tuki, puts it squarely in the middle of accomplishing mission one. Most older children who might be trying to access inappropriate sites will be beyond interest in so much Shrek and beyond interest in Club Tuki.

So, the question then becomes, “Does the Shrek browser fulfill its mission of protecting younger children from inappropriate content in a uniquely better way than other choices?”

The Shrek browser does provide parents with the ability to allow their children access only to sites that they deem acceptable. Called “white listing,” this approach can be very valuable as the content changes on sites frequently and it is hard for parents to keep up. The browser provides a Google safe search function, which works well. It blocks those annoying pop-up ads that children sometimes don’t recognize as ads (we have plenty of smiley face icons right now, thanks). And it is, for sure, a whole lot of fun. When the browser starts, Shrek begins talking and video from Shrek 3 begins playing. The aesthetics of the browser window are entertaining, looking like the top of Shrek’s head and all green.

Taking the whole thing as a package, however, the Shrek browser has two fatal flaws, along with a number of annoyances important enough to make a different choice more appealing. Its first fatal flaw is the level of and intrusiveness of advertising on the browser. After logging in to the browser with your password, you are presented with a pop-up window asking if you’d like to join Club Tuki now. There is a big smiley face for “yes” and no choice for “no.” The insistence on joining Club Tuki is obtrusive. Once the browser is open, the entire screen is surrounded by ads for Shrek, Shrek-related products, and other Disney paraphernalia. Also, the six special Shrek buttons across the top ultimately provide links to: all three Shrek movie sites, offers to buy Shrek DVDs and CDs online, trailers and clips from Shrek movies, games to play (although of the five games pictured, only three are actually games, the other two are ads for game products to buy), the history of Shrek and its products, a store (which was not operable - maybe there is enough stuff to buy everywhere else on the site?), and downloads. There are some cool things to download (coloring pages, wallpapers, screen savers, buddy icons). When attempting to close the browser, you are hit up once again for a subscription - the browser reminds you that your free subscription to the premium stuff is fast ending and click here to sign up.

And then there’s Club Tuki. Children’s online clubs can be a great idea and can be very well done. Webkinz and Bella Sera are good examples of kids’ online clubs that are safe, engaging, educational, and uplifting. Club Tuki has great intentions; it too is safe and educational. But it is simply not engaging enough for kids to visit time and again based on its content alone. The one thing that might make them visit time and again is the fact that they can earn “real” money to buy things online via auction. Personally, I’m not comfortable with the idea of paying kids something tangible to entice them to learn - a little too quid pro quo for my tastes. Unfortunately, to take advantage of some of the features of the Shrek browser, such as white-listed email, the child has to be a member of Club Tuki.

The smaller annoyances are things like no print preview function and no navigation buttons once you’ve opened a new browser window from within the original browser window. Another annoyance is the monthly fee to belong to Club Tuki. Other children’s online clubs are free for one year after purchase of the qualifying product ($10 or less).

So, no need to raise your pitchforks and run this browser out of town. Shrek is a nice enough guy and his browser is okay as far as it goes. But Shrek’s probably better at saving damsels in distress from dragons than he is at guarding our kids from bad stuff on the internet.

Susan Powers is currently a stay-at-home poet with two children, one in public school and one homeschooling. In her dark and distant past, she was a corporate executive.