Sunday, 4 October 2026
Anime, manga, and games, with a take · A Yukimedia publication
← all stories gamesbusiness 6 sources · 1d ago ·

Yahoo! Kids to End Service on December 4, 2026 After 29 Years

LINE Yahoo is retiring a filtered search portal built for a PC-era childhood and shifting its youth protection budget toward digital literacy material, school partnerships, and consultation desks suited to a smartphone and generative AI environment.

Key Facts

  • LINE Yahoo announced on September 28, 2026 that Yahoo! Kids will end on December 4, 2026.
  • Yahoo! Kids launched in 1997 and remained available through December 3, 2026, a run the closure notice describes as 29 years.
  • By 2024, Yahoo! Kids offered about 3,200 pieces of content across Features, Learning, Games, and Illustrated Guides.
  • "Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby!" was available on Yahoo! Kids from 2008 to 2020 and can still be played through the Internet Archive.
  • A special page looking back on Yahoo! Kids memories is scheduled for November 2026.

Reporting from 6 sources: 4Gamer.net, KAI-YOU, ASCII.jp, Denfaminicogamer, and 2 more.

Yahoo! Kids to End Service on December 4, 2026 After 29 Years

LINE Yahoo announced on September 28, 2026 that it will end its children's portal site "Yahoo! Kids" on December 4, 2026. The service remains usable as usual through December 3. A special page looking back on memories of the site is scheduled for November. The company cited a review of how it provides youth protection and literacy education, pointing to a changed digital environment for children: internet use has expanded past PC searching and browsing to school devices, smartphones, social media, messengers, video, and generative AI. Launched in 1997, Yahoo! Kids offered filtered search, study material, games, and picture encyclopedias, and by 2024 carried about 3,200 pieces of content. The closure notice thanks users: "Yahoo! Kids has supported everyone's 'I want to know!' for 29 years." After the site ends, LINE Yahoo says it will keep and strengthen information ethics and digital literacy education, measures against online troubles, consultation services, and cooperation with schools, local governments, and parents.

Yahoo! Kids started on November 4, 1997, run by Yahoo Corporation at the time as part of its social contribution work. It aimed at elementary and junior high school students aged 7 to 15 and began as a directory of child-friendly sites plus keyword search.

Early registration was manual. "Homepage registration specialist staff" called "surfers" viewed sites themselves and picked which ones were suitable for children. The site was renewed in 2024 and carried about 3,200 pieces of content at that point.

  • Features: help guides for the summer holiday "independent research" assignment, book report navigation, typing practice links, disaster prevention material, manga explainers on AI, programming challenges, "Kokokara Gakuen" on sexuality and being oneself, and projects on how money works.
  • Learning: Japanese, arithmetic, science, and social studies for grades one through six, plus English, home economics, and integrated studies.
  • Illustrated Guides: lookups by genre including jobs, animals, plants, the starry sky, and ingredients.
  • Games: "Shiri Typing," "Touch de English," Hello Kitty titles, Reversi, and free throws.

A filtered image search launched in 2020. Game Spark and GameBusiness.jp both note that "Pooh's Home Run Derby!", playable from 2008 to 2020, drew a following around 2012 for its difficulty and for the batter nicknamed "Puniki." It is no longer on the site but remains playable through the Internet Archive.

Synthesized by Yomimono from the 6 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.

Yahoo! Kids Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby LY Corporation

More on this

Sources