Totlol, an online video playroom for children

A software-developer dad eager to share the fun of online video with his young children has single-handedly created a tot-friendly version of YouTube.

Totlol.com has begun receiving thousands of visits daily since Ron Ilan launched it in May as a place on the Internet where parents can share cute, comic, educational or touching videos with their tech-era progeny.

The British Columbia father-of-two embarked on the project because his nearly three-year-old son, like many children, is curious about computers and the Internet.

"I found myself with a boy that wants to know what daddy does on the computer all day," Ilan, 38, told AFP.

"He doesn't want to see daddy do his email. And, when you go on YouTube you see very quickly it is not designed for parents looking for videos for their kids."

Ilan said he and his wife believed that when it came to video for young children, "there has to be something other than Barney," a popular purple television show dinosaur.

He used his own money to build a website where parents can join an online community that "scouts" Google's popular YouTube service for videos they deem suitable for children ranging from six months to six years old.

"You don't see the entire YouTube; you see just what parents think is good," Ilan said, noting that membership and recommended videos reflect cultures from around the world.

"It is a very diverse collection that is growing dynamically. I'm not sure what is going to come up next week, but I'm sure it will be interesting."

Video's featured on Totlol's home page Tuesday included an animated cartoon of music star Madonna singing "The Wheels on the Bus" song; dancing cartoon penguins, and an adorable slide show of animals comforting each other.

Offerings at the website include videos of professional children's entertainers and readings of books including "The Giving Tree" by famed author Shel Silverstein.

Totlol lets parents share online video with offspring the same way they might read to them, Ilan said.

"I would be presumptuous to say it is like showing a book, but it has qualities TV doesn't have," he said. "Basically, parents build the collection."

Totlol, which unofficially stands for "tot laugh out loud," acts as a parent-driven video discovery service and doesn't store videos on its server, which is located in New York City.

Videos are still hosted on YouTube's computers and Google could opt to display ads to viewers linked to them via Totlol.

Ilan opposes bombarding children with ads at Totlol and is pondering other ways to earn money at the website.

"If it doesn't work it doesn't work, but I'm sure it will," he said.

"Something is going to change in children's entertainment. It is a new generation."

Industry statistics indicate that nearly five million children aged two to 11 watch YouTube videos monthly.

"If a site that isn't designed for kids is the number one destination for kids, we can do it better," Ilan said, referring to YouTube.

"I'm not coming from the 'let's block everything' crowd. I'm coming from the 'let's help parents find something' crowd. Because people already take their kids to YouTube and they can do it better, that's the whole idea."

© 2008 AFP

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