InventorSpot

Safety-concerned parents who enjoy viewing online videos with their toddlers or preschoolers may be happy to learn about Totlol, a community-moderated video website that launched this month in beta. The site provides access to videos intended for viewers between the ages of six months and six years. Sure, parents can watch too, with child accompaniment.

Totlol enables videos on YouTube to be played on the site through its embeddable player. Because the site is moderated by community members, only tot-friendly videos can be accessed, so parents don't have to worry about opening inappropriate content.

Scout, submit, screen

Although you don't have to sign up to view videos, one of the great features of the site is the ability to moderate content and to participate in a community of parents. For this you need an account.

As part of the community-moderation process, you can search ("scout") for any video on YouTube and submit for inclusion on the site. When you submit a video, you're asked to add a title, keyword tags, and a review of the content and to check categories under which the video might be classified.

Before a video is made available, it has to go through a screening process conducted by community members. You can help screen videos submitted by other users. And if you feel that a video available on Totlol is inappropriate, you can flag it for rescreening.

Community and interactivity

Aside from having a say in the site content, you can interact with other users by befriending them and exchanging messages through the site. You can read others' profiles and fill in your own with interests, hobbies, blog or website addresses and other info that you want to share, making it easy for you to find connections with others.

As with YouTube, you can add favorite videos, rate them, make comments and subscribe to particular channels or users' videos. The site has all the tools to potentially develop a great online community of parents and the young-at-heart.

So if you've got tots or know someone who does, Totlol might be worth a peek-a-boo — I mean, peek.