Also, got an email from Toondoo, taking their stand on inappropriate content. I do appreciate them taking time to answer. Copy-pasting here for the benefit of readers –

Hi DD Mom,

We came across your blog post which mentions ToonDoo:

“I took one look at Toondoo and must say I was mighty impressed. Though I am still not sure it is appropriate for a 12 year old, as they don’t seem to have any screening on the content published. The cartoon creator interface is very intuitive. I let D sit on the Create Your Own Cartoon interface for few minutes, was taken aback to see how the kids mind works. Within few minutes, she was dragging the images into the work area. Which created the background. She then dragged 2 humans and a monster-lookalike-something into the work area. She even had a story to tell. I resentfully refuse to go into further details..”

Firstly, we’d like to thank you for your appreciative comments about the site and the creator interface. Everything has been designed keeping in mind simplicity and easy of use that would appeal to children as well as adults. Needless to say, ToonDoo has been extensively used by people from all age groups, countries and socio-cultural backgrounds to be able to express themselves.

We are aware though, that keeping in mind the geographical, cultural and diversity of a large number of users, some of the content may be inappropriate for children. It would be virtually impractical to monitor all the content that comes on the site and sift out the “safe” content while screening out the “inappropriate”.

Hence, we follow a slightly different approach in empowering our users to ‘flag as inappropriate’ any toon which they feel is offensive or not suitable for younger viewers. Content once flagged inappropriate is subjected to review by the Editors post which it is removed from view for all those users who have switched SAFE SEARCH ON (to check if this is ON or OFF for your child, you can login with his / her id and check the safe search setting from the top right corner. This can be changed by going to ‘My Profile’ under ETC) We also have an army of toondooers who have volunteered to help in this effort and are actively blocking mature content with special power that we’ve given them.

While we cannot guarantee that you will never find inappropriate content at ToonDoo, we can assure you that all such content would be blocked from view after it has been reviewed by the Editors. The SAFE SEARCH option should be turned ON to ensure this.

We’d also like you to know that ToonDoo originated from jambav.com, an educational entertainment site for children (Do take a look at the Jambav Parenting blogs!)

Moreover, ToonDoo has also been creatively used by schools and educators worldwide as a preferred educational tool with children.

We hope that you will find that ToonDoo is indeed safe for children, given the content moderation process we shared with you. Feel free to write back if you have additional suggestions or questions.

ToonDudette

internet indeed IS going to be a part of our life! sooner for our kids than what it was for us! i was 19 when internet came to India and home.

and now my 10 year old nieces have orkut profiles and seeing the kinda pics they put or scraps that they get worries me at times…

these tips plus some sensible talking should keep them grounded even in this wireless world!

cheers!

abha