Why creating children’s webcomics and artwork doesn’t work
…in 2025 and beyond
For those who don’t know or remember, the Australian and New Zealand governments have passed a social media ban for children and teenagers under 16. Due to COPPA and GDPR, you can’t have children’s webcomics on Tapas, Webtoon, GlobalComix, or NamiComi. You have probably heard that Epic Games must pay US$520 million in fines to the FTC for violating the COPPA, which is five times more than Google and YouTube. I’ve heard that the measures in Australia and New Zealand are intended to reduce the social harm done to young Australians and Kiwis and are set to come into force in late 2025. Tech giants will be fined up to AU$49.6 million (around US$32.5 million) if they do not adhere to the rules.
That said, no modern internet service nor content hosting site (webcomic, art, video, blog) can have rules that allow family-friendly webcomics or artwork that children under the age of 13 (and possibly teenagers) read back in 2007 just before Tapas was founded, as we did post art and comics on Blogger, DeviantArt, Vox (shut down in late 2010), Posterous (shut down in early 2013), among other things on our old computers since we didn’t have a large screen tablet, Clip Studio Paint (formerly “Manga Studio” in North America; “Comic Studio” in Japan), or Adobe Photoshop back then (some of us had either Jasc/Corel Paint Shop Pro, ArcSoft PhotoStudio 2000, or GIMP as teenagers back in the early/mid-2000s). There will be text reading “I draw mature themes” (or similar) on social media, Patreon, and Ko-fi. I am extremely liberal (and an atheist) in terms of what they want to include mature themes and fanservice in their field (“sex sells”) if they have graduated from high school, college, or university, but having an anime/manga art style with fanservice while going into fine art, editorial, and children’s content (those who are 12 and under — for example, children’s book illustration or children’s animated shows) would be nearly impossible for an up-and-coming artist or a top artist. Here’s why:
Many up-and-coming and top artists won’t be creating family-friendly artwork, as they will include sex in their field when they graduate from high school, college, or university (though Disney still allows artists who enjoy creating erotic artwork despite being a family-friendly company). Most up-and-coming and top artists are now including sex in their field, such as medium-to-large breasts on females, which may have the text on their Instagram, Threads, Newgrounds, and Bluesky profiles reading “this is not for children”, “My art is made for mature audiences”, “I draw mature themes” (or similar), the fundamentalist and conservative Christians (read: religious people or religious families) — the English-speaking countries, not just the US and Canada — have installed Net Nanny or any other kind of content-control software on their smartphones, computers, and tablets (such as iPads), and also installed Pure Flix and Up Faith and Family on their Roku devices or Apple TVs as they want to deprive their children’s future before they turn 18/19 years old, and they don’t want to see such content by their children or teenagers, except for the artists’ (young) relatives.
Instagram started in 2010, but it was made for photos at the time and less artwork, just before it exploded with up-and-coming and big artists who still use or have left DeviantArt. Tapas (formerly Tapastic) was launched in 2012, the same year the Wii U console was released. Originally, the webcomic hosting site did not have its own community forums, Discord server, or novels (Discourse launched in 2014, and Discord launched in 2015), and scroll-format webcomics in Japan were a niche at the time of the launch. If your social media profiles state that you are a family-friendly artist (except if you are a minor) and you say “fanservice is evil,” then you may not expect everything in return, as SFW artwork may not get a lot of attention on art and webcomic sites, including crowdfunding sites such as Patreon and Ko-fi. Almost all the content we post on Mastodon, Spoutible, Facebook, Instagram, Behance, ArtStation, Threads, Pixiv, Bluesky, and Newgrounds comes from our computers, not smartphones or tablets. Christianity will soon be frowned upon, as there are LGBT content creators/voice actors who frequent these sites (I’m a straight ally creator and an atheist). 75% of our art and webcomic views come from people who use smartphones or tablets, not from the web. Not all our artwork or manga online is appropriate for anyone under 18/19. If you want children’s comics or manga to be allowed online, please lobby the FTC, the Competition Bureau, or the European Parliament. You won’t have much luck lobbying these competition regulators, as no one has any effective power to have the content censored or deemed suitable for children, so their parents and legal guardians won’t complain.
COPPA and the GDPR have become completely draconian. They can toss massive fines at any company or force any company to go bankrupt if a webcomic site or an art site is judged to be trying to attract children by hosting and promoting things that even look like children’s content and then allowing children to post private information (including a profile image that the sites’ administrators or moderators don’t monitor), speak privately with strangers (even with DMs/PMs), or come across adult content. A court can hold any site operators who fail to comply with COPPA and will face a potential US$50,000+ fine per violation (in the case of the GDPR, €10 million to €20 million, or GB£10 million to GB£20 million). Whatever you want to create content that caters to the younger audience, which is 12 and under, today, if you’re banned from art sites and webcomic hosting sites, you’re banned from the modern communities.
“Think of the children” also doesn’t work, as they are often misused by fundamentalist and conservative Christian parents, boomers, and activist groups who fail to raise their kids and then take the easy way out by complaining to up-and-coming and big-name artists and creators, including animation companies, manga publishing companies, and video game companies, rather than being responsible parents raising their kids into adulthood with a healthy balance between feminine and masculine traits, and will become a logical fallacy. That’s why print media is a much better place to sell children’s manga, comics, or graphic novels, and they are very much in demand with publishers. Most up-and-coming and big-name artists won’t fund primarily children’s comics or graphic novels, including the ones that are either on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, and may not even be allowed to do so since they include sex in their field or include mature themes.
However — that stated — times are changing. There are now growing ways of finding children’s content through avenues that DO benefit the family-friendly audience, and it seems clear that due to recent events, there are a lot more avenues in development, as there are tons of other fantastic websites designed for children under 13.
Suppose you wanted to start a children’s webcomic. In that case, you’d need to have a dedicated website for the comic, read your hosting provider’s TOS, accept payment in Patreon and Ko-fi from parents and legal guardians looking for good kids’ content, do a ton of work in age, identity verification, and compliance so you don’t face COPPA and/or GDPR violations or go bankrupt, not having your comic hosted on Tapas, Webtoon, GlobalComix, or NamiComi as you can’t advertise anything or allow any comments at all (such as giving the kids any means to post comments or messages), use print media by seeking an agent and pitching your comics or manga to the publishers if children’s comics or manga are the areas you’re interested in, protect all of that identity information so you won’t dox anyone, and make a ton of money. I estimate you’d need at least US$2,000–3,000 a year for every 750K to 1 million daily active readers and supporters to support server storage and bandwidth in addition to hosting, moderation, compliance, and developer costs. You’ll probably get a bunch of nostalgic 30-somethings or mid-to-late 20-somethings reading these shindigs while the teenagers are off reading intense shonen or shojo manga unless you change the tone of your art, which includes aging up your main characters to teenagers and adults if you don’t want the series to be filled with that kind of demographic. Faith-based (Christian-themed) content creators, please see this Google Docs file.
The internet giants (US-based companies or otherwise) are becoming really concerned about children under 13 (which may be changed to 16) being part of the primary audience, and they need to comply with COPPA and/or GDPR as they don’t want to face a huge fine or bankruptcy. I don’t work at a children’s company or in a setting with children, including elementary schools or daycare centers, but I can teach children about ending sibling rivalry. When they happen to stumble upon a webcomic series on Tapas, including mirrors, a Patreon link, or a Ko-fi link, they will see a message reading “Possibly NSFW content” or a Patreon page that needs to stay marked as adult content via email, or similar. The fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christians — the English-speaking countries, not just the US and Canada — have become really concerned about creators providing LGBT representation in their works and coming out as LGBT individuals as they are becoming vigilant moral guardians who want their children to have the best chance of living in a more moralistic society. When fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christians happen to stumble upon a webcomic’s or web novel’s URL, what they see is the following:
a Tapas URL (usually http://tapas.io/series/[webcomic or web novel series goes here]/info), displaying a BL (yaoi), GL (yuri), or LGBT as the main genre (or sub-genre) of the comic or novel series,
a Webtoon URL (usually http://webtoons.com/en/canvas/[webcomic series goes here]), which may provide LGBT representation,
a GlobalComix URL (usually http://globalcomix.com/c/[webcomic series goes here]), displaying a BL (yaoi), GL (yuri), or LGBT as the main genre (or sub-genre) of the comic series,
a NamiComi URL (usually https://namicomi.com/en/title/[title code]/[webcomic series title goes here]), which may provide LGBT representation, including boys’ love (BL) or girls’ love (GL) genre,
a webcomic URL (usually http://www.somewebcomicsite.com/…) that is either published by Hiveworks or not, displaying a BL (yaoi), GL (yuri), or LGBT as the main genre (or sub-genre) of the comic series, including the comic series’ “About” page (which includes about the comic and its creator(s), including the age range) and the “Characters” page (which include the characters, and may include the characters’ or comic creators’ sexuality and/or pronouns), and
social media profiles (including blogs or portfolios) that may have the underage emoji (🔞) or have “18+”, or have the text reading “I draw mature themes” (or similar) if they are producing mature themes, all of which will drive off fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christians as they want to promote family values and the Christian right.
Take CoroCoro Comic for example. CoroCoro Comic has dominated the kodomo-muke manga industry as its main target is elementary school-aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga. Several of its properties, like Doraemon and the Pokémon game series, have become cultural phenomena in Japan. Take Papercutz Graphic Novels for another example. Papercutz has dominated the children’s comics and graphic novels industry, mostly based on licensed properties such as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Lego Ninjago. Another example would be Sesame Street, which dominated the educational children’s television industry for over 50 years.
I badly wish the US and Canada were atheist-majority countries, the Christian population permanently reduced to 7.5 million (including around the world), and around half of the churches be permanently closed, so that the anime, manga, and video game industries from Japan (including dubbing companies) won’t complain about censorship, such as the content that needs to be censored to either appease the younger audience or to avoid a moral backlash in Western countries (and also have the mangaka severely prohibit Seven Seas Entertainment from snatching any of their manga series for licensing that may be “too racy” for either Viz Media or Kodansha USA, and the manga publishers need to stick with the American/Canadian manga publishers that are affiliated with that publisher, such as Shogakukan and Shueisha belong with Viz Media, and Kodansha belong with Kodansha USA). Japan rarely touches Christianity.
In other words, I’m hoping to see a dedicated webcomic community, including the art community and web novel community that benefits both the fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christian audience so they won’t find anything inappropriate (including any works that provide LGBT representation, which drives off the said audience), replace what they used to get children’s content on the internet, and won’t allow them to post comments or messages. It may already exist, and I don’t know about it. They’ll have an uphill battle under current regimes, and if you think that’s a bad thing, please try to change the regimes. Don’t rant about or attack any artists on your blogs or social media, including the community forums, Reddit subreddits, or Discord servers, about why they include fanservice in their field (including LGBT representation) if they are not creating family-friendly artwork as they exist (and I do, too).
