What makes a browser actually safe for kids?
Any browser can block a list of bad sites. On its own that’s never enough. A safe browser for kids has to do four things well.
- Start small. A young kid doesn’t need the whole internet. They need the twelve places they love. Shaka Surf’s first age level, Pip, is exactly that: a set of allowed sites Shaka picked for their age, plus the ones you add, with no search and no address bar and only one tab at a time. As they grow, they get safe search and more latitude to venture outside of the cove.
- Filter search properly. Once a kid can read, they’ll want to look things up. Shaka Surf forces safe search on, and Wave Watch™ reads whatever they open from the results. Shaka Search, our own search engine for kids, is on the way soon!
- Turn blocks into conversations. A wall teaches a kid to find a way around it. A block that says why, with a button to ask you, teaches judgement and opens the conversations. In Shaka Surf a blocked page comes with “Ask to surf here,” and the request lands on your phone. See it happen.
- Keep you in the loop without spying. Kids should know what you can see. Wave Watch™ shows you the waves, flags and asks, and your kid knows that’s what you’re looking at.
How Shaka Surf works
Shaka is two apps. Your kid gets Shaka Surf, the browser. With some simple setup, Shaka Surf helps you remove other browser apps on your kid’s device and make Shaka Surf the default browser. You get Shaka Safe, the app that puts you on watch. Setup takes about two minutes: you follow a guided setup for each kid and then pair the Shaka Surf app on your kid’s iPhone and/or iPad. From then on, kids surf at their age level and you see the sites they visit from your own phone.
Four age levels instead of one age setting
Kids don’t all need the same internet at the same birthday, so Shaka Surf doesn’t sort by birthday. It uses four age levels, and you move your kid up when you both feel ready. Two layers sit under all four: No Surf Zones, which close off adult content, malware, gambling, violence, bullying, profanity, drugs and other age-inappropriate content at every age level, and Wave Watch™, which reads each page as it loads.
- Pip, the Cove. Often around 1 to 4. Allowed sites only, picked for their age, plus the ones you add. No search, no address bar.
- Squid, the Reef. Often around 5 to 9. Allowed sites, one tab at a time, and search with safe search forced on. They can open a result, one hop, and Wave Watch™ reads whatever is there.
- Grom, the Shore. Often around 10 to 14. Open internet access behind both layers. A covered page comes with the reason and a way to ask.
- Charger, Open Water. Often 15 and up. Open water, mostly watching. The No Surf Zones still hold, and Wave Watch™ raises flags more than it covers pages.
Safe browser vs. parental controls: what’s the difference?
Parental controls like Screen Time and Family Link work at the device level. They’re good at limits: how long, which apps, what time of night. They’re weaker inside the browser, because the browser they’re controlling was designed for adults, and every rule you add is a patch on top of that.
Shaka Surf is the browser. It doesn’t fight your device controls, and it doesn’t replace them. Keep whatever limits you already have, and make Shaka Surf the place your kid actually goes online. If setting up those device limits feels like a hundred taps, that’s the problem Shaka Simple is being built to fix.
See Shaka next to Screen Time, Family Link and monitoring apps
No secrets, in either direction
The thing that makes most monitoring apps fail is that kids find out. Then the app becomes the enemy, and the internet becomes the thing they do on a friend’s phone. Shaka Surf starts from the opposite assumption: the first screen your kid ever sees explains exactly what their lifeguard can see. Parents promote out loud, like earning a new belt. There’s no hidden mode and no quiet tightening, and that’s why kids keep surfing where you can see them.
Who makes Shaka?
Shaka is family owned and self-funded. There’s no growth target that needs your kid online longer, and no investor asking for engagement numbers. Just a small team trying to make the best digital readiness products for you and your family.
