Can you find me child appropriate, searchable image sites for my
students?  My middle school has filtering software (N2H2) which blocks
students from sites like Google Images if any part of that site has
inappropriate subject matter.  We are doing a project on music
interpretation and we need images from the internet to create a
slideshow to go along with their chosen song.

Hi Jeff,

I know of a site which should suit the purposes of your students...

PicSearch
=========

PicSearch is a Swedish image search engine. It has a smaller index
than the likes of Google, but results are usually very relevant. The
family filter is permanently on, and your students should never see
any indecent pictures.

"Under no circumstances is it possible for children to bypass our
family filters since they were planned for from the outset and
integrated into Picsearch's whole indexing system. Offensive content
is easily eliminated by our specially designed filters before it can
even enter our database."
http://www.picsearch.com/menu.cgi?item=Family%20Filters&pl=en&rp=same

PicSearch Basic
http://www.picsearch.com/search.cgi?q=&pl=en&rp=same

PicSearch Advanced
http://www.picsearch.com/search.cgi?q=&pl=en&rp=same&color=both&photo=both&anim=no&size=1p&adv=1&num=16

As a test I tried the keyword "doggie" and the first 100 images were
totally okay for kids:
http://www.picsearch.com/search.cgi?num=16&q=doggie&rp=same&pl=en

As is "doggie style":
http://www.picsearch.com/search.cgi?q=doggie+style&anim=no&color=both&size=1p&num=16&adv=1&rp=same&pl=en


Other Engines
=============

Other image search engines tend to have optional filters to bypass
questionable content. Google Image Search, for example, does have a
filtering system called SafeSearch, but it is easily turned off by a
kid if they know what they are doing. The same goes for all the major
search engines - the filter can be turned off, whereas PicSearch is
permanently filtered, and cannot be changed.


Search strategy

I compared the different image search engines using this page, from my
personal bookmarks:
http://searchenginez.com/images.html


I trust this answers your question. If any portion of my answer is
unclear, please ask for clarification.

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga