Making a website for kids that's easy, safe and collects nothing
Children read slowly, tap imprecisely and click on anything that moves. A good site for them uses short words, big buttons, one idea per screen and pictures that carry meaning. It also collects nothing and tracks no one: children's privacy is protected by law in many countries, and the simplest way to respect it is to have no forms and no trackers aimed at them.
Who the site is really for
"Kids" covers a five-year-old who can't read yet and a twelve-year-old who reads faster than some adults. Pick an age band and design for its youngest reader. Also decide who else visits: a club site for children is often read mainly by parents, who need the times, prices and safeguarding information. Many child friendly websites work best with a children's section and a clearly separate grown-ups' page.
Design rules that help young readers
| Area | For children |
|---|---|
| Words | Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time. Read it aloud; if it sounds like a leaflet, rewrite it. |
| Text size | Larger than for adults, with generous line spacing; avoid long lines of text |
| Buttons | Big, well spaced and obviously buttons, with a word as well as an icon |
| Navigation | Three to five choices, the same on every page, with pictures that match the words |
| Motion | Little or none; animation distracts and some children find it upsetting |
| Colour | Bright is fine, but text needs strong contrast against its background |
| Links out | Few, and clearly marked as leaving the site |
Test with a real child of the right age. Watch where they tap, what they ignore, and where they get stuck, without helping. Ten minutes of watching teaches more than any checklist.
Privacy: collect nothing
Children's personal data gets extra protection in many places, such as COPPA in the United States and the UK's Age Appropriate Design Code. The rules are detailed and depend on where you and your visitors are, so check what applies to you. The safest design for a website made for children is one that doesn't need any of it: no sign-up, no forms asking a child for a name or email, no tracking, no adverts, no chat.
Anticode's published design-engine pages fit that approach. They contain no scripts at all, load no third-party trackers and can't embed outside players or widgets. Page views are counted per day by source, without cookies, so you can see the site is used without following any child. If a site does need a form, such as a club's registration, point it at parents: label it for parents and carers and put it on the grown-ups' page.
Why Playful and the design gate suit it
Of Anticode's seven design systems, Playful uses Fredoka, a rounded, friendly typeface that's easy for early readers. Every site keeps to one font family, which avoids the clutter of mixed type that children's sites often fall into. Before publishing, the design gate blocks pages that miss basics: a phone viewport, alt text on images, visible keyboard focus and reduced-motion support, so a child or parent who has turned off animation on their device gets a still page. The Critic's checks also cover body text size.
As a kids website builder, Anticode works from a description such as "a website for our Saturday science club for 7 to 10 year olds, with this term's experiments, a page of fun facts, and a page for parents with times, prices and how to join". Show photos of activities only with parents' consent, and avoid showing children's faces with their names. The class website page covers sites for a school class, and Anticode's own Big Bang Discovery Centre template is a playful example of a site for families.
Games and activities
A quiz, a spelling game or a times-tables practice can be built as a separate app. Apps run in a sandbox with no network of any kind, can't send anything a child types anywhere, and save progress only in the browser on that device. See educational game maker for what works well. Keep games out of the main pages so the information stays easy to find.
Limits
- No child accounts, logins or progress tracking across devices.
- No private pages. Everything published is public, so think about every photo and name.
- No embedded videos. Link to a video platform's page instead, ideally one designed for children.
- Not a tool for children to use alone. A child making their own site should do it with a parent or teacher who holds the account and checks what gets published.
Questions people ask
What font is good for a kids website?
A clear, rounded sans-serif with distinct letter shapes, at a larger size than usual. Avoid decorative fonts for body text.
Do I need a privacy policy if the site collects nothing?
It's still good practice to say so. Each Anticode site gets a Privacy Policy written from what it actually does; read it and adjust it.
Can children leave comments?
No. Published pages have no comments, which for a children's site is usually a good thing.