Swiggle Search Engine FAQs

Swiggle is a child-friendly search engine designed to support Key Stages 1 & 2 in learning how to safely search the web.

There are several features offered by Swiggle that make it different from commercial search engines, making it more suitable for a primary school setting:

• The search results returned by Swiggle are biased towards educational resources
• Swiggle is free of advertising and preferential results
• The interface is simplified to reduce distractions
• Swiggle offers several online safety tools, that help towards reporting inappropriate results

Swiggle offers a more appropriate environment for young people to learn how to safely search the web.  By installing Swiggle as the default search engine in your school, you can guide you learners towards a safer online search environment.

Swiggle should be used in conjunction with your school’s web content filtering system, to help to further mitigate opportunities for exposure to inappropriate content.

Swiggle is not a web filter.

Whilst we try to present safe and appropriate results, Swiggle is unable to block users from harmful content – this is the role of web content filtering tools.

It is therefore essential that schools integrate a system that is protected with a filtering and monitoring system that all school devices are enrolled into.

Simply head over to Swiggle.org.uk, type your search query into the search bar, and you're off!

You can also search by image - and if you hit a blip, just tap the SwiggleBot for assistance.

Swiggle is designed to return results from a list of SWGfL approved websites that prioritise educational resources based on the user’s search.

Swiggle is designed to offer a safer search experience for KS1 and KS2 students. While every effort has been made to ensure inappropriate content will not be shown, we cannot guarantee that all results will be entirely suitable or free from links to external content that may not be age appropriate.

However, when used in conjunction with your school or home filter and our built-in reporting tools, Swiggle provides a significantly safer and more appropriate alternative to mainstream general search engines.

All search queries entered into the website are checked and filtered before the search is allowed to proceed. If we determine that the search is not appropriate, one of two paths will be taken:

1. A message will be displayed saying “Sorry, I cannot search for that”
2. The system will redirect the search and display an informational message. This may happen where the search indicates a harm or issue for the user.

The SwiggleBot is here to help! Just click the SwiggleBot to get assistance.

For students, if they have the Swiggle extension installed, they should use the screen cover tool to cover the screen. They are then encouraged to get a trusted adult.

Alternatively users can access the reporting form, or use the SwiggleBot to walk them through submitting a report.

The screen cover is a tool that is provided as part of our extension. It enables students to quickly cover the screen if they land on some content that they feel is inappropriate. The screen cover takes the student to a page telling them to go and tell a trusted adult.

From here the trusted adult can follow our process to ensure that the issue does not reoccur in the future.

If you find inappropriate results in the search results in Swiggle, you can report those results to our team. We will then evaluate whether it should be removed from the index. We have a number of reporting routes available:

• Our reporting page – enables you to tell us about inappropriate results
• Through the SwiggleBot, where you can select the result that you want to report

If a child approaches you with a concern, open a dialogue with them to understand what it is that may be upsetting them. Use this as an opportunity to positively reinforce that they did the right thing to block the content and to talk to you about their concern.

The screen cover tool will try to give you as much information about the page that the child covered as possible to enable you to see which page it was, and possible the URL or the previous page. You can then take steps to block the content on your network, or inform us if the page was found directly from our search results.

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right-hand side of the browser
2. Select Settings
3. On the left hand-side, select Search Engine
4. Select Manage search engines and site search
5. Under the Site Search section, click the Add button
6. Enter the following information
   1. Name: Swiggle
   2. Shortcut: swiggle.org.uk
   3. URL: https://swiggle.org.uk/?q=%s
   4. Click Add
7. Select the 3-dots menu next to Swiggle in the Site Search list
8. Click Make Default

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right-hand side of the browser
2. Select Settings
3. On the left hand-side, select Privacy, Search, and Services
4. Select Search and connected experiences
5. Select Address bar and search
6. Select Search engines
7. Click the Add search engine button
8. Enter the following information
   1. Search Engine: Swiggle
   2. Shortcut: swiggle.org.uk
   3. URL with %s in place of query: https://swiggle.org.uk/?q=%s
   4. Click Add
9. Select the 3-dots menu next to Swiggle in the Site Search list
10. Click Make Default

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right-hand side of the browser
2. Select Settings
3. On the left hand-side, select Search Engine
4. Click the Add button
5. Enter the following information
   1. Search Engine Name: Swiggle
   2. URL with %s in place of search term: https://swiggle.org.uk/?q=%s
   3. Keyword: @swiggle,@swg
   4. Click Add Engine
6. Scroll to the top of the page
7. Select Swiggle from the drop-down menu under Default Search Engine