Great question! Yahoo! Kids is Yahoo!'s entertainment and education site for children aged 6 through 12. Our mission is to connect you and your children with the best—and safest—content on the Web. We want to be your kids' #1 starting point on the Web—the place where they can always find just what they're seeking, whether for school or fun.

Launched in 1996 as "Yahooligans!," Yahoo! Kids uniquely combines the power of the Yahoo! network, our relationships with the top producers of children's content and kid-safe search built on more than 10,000 Web sites vetted by our editors. There's nothing like it on the Web.

We encourage you to explore our site and visit frequently. We're adding fresh content daily and have big plans for the future—all dedicated to the benefit of your children. 

It's still here! Everything your kids knew and loved about Yahooligans! (our original name) is in Yahoo! Kids: our Directory, our educational content, our vast library of games, our Music section and more. All we have done is refresh its appearance, update its technology and give it new life. And a new name, of course.

One important change is that we separated our entertainment features from our educational content, which now resides in our StudyZone. We did this to remove possible distractions for your kids, whether they're doing homework or working at school. 

As with all Web sites, some features may come and go. But we took care to retain some traditional favorites. Earl is still answering questions (although he had a makeover) and our Jokes section remains very popular.

If you're missing something from Yahooligans!, take a few moments and look around. You're likely to find it.  

Let us count the ways!

• We have the resources of the entire Yahoo! network. We work closely with Yahoo!'s market-leading properties—Games, Music, Movies, TV... You get the idea. No other kids' site has such power.
• We are deeply human. We have the best technology available, but everything that you see on Yahoo! Kids has been reviewed by real, live human beings who feel a profound responsibility for your children's welfare.
• We are independent and can feature everything your kids want to see, regardless of the source.
• We offer more than entertainment. We offer solid educational content with a dash of fun. There's a time for work and a time for play, and we offer both.
• We feature kid-safe search based upon our Directory of more than 10,000 Web sites. Yahoo! editors have reviewed every one to be sure it's appropriate for your children.

Yahoo! Kids Parents is your area at Yahoo! Kids. We designed it to help you:

• Enhance your children's enjoyment of Yahoo! Kids.
  
  
• Keep your children safe on the Internet.
  
  
• Make wise entertainment decisions for your children.
  
  
• Navigate the bewildering world of technology for children and families.

We bring you the latest news about these in our blog—written by recognized authorities. Our library contains dozens of articles and resources about online safety and kids' entertainment from leading organizations. It's the best collection on the Web-and we invite you to visit us regularly.

Many, many schools set the home page on their school computers to Yahoo! Kids because they know our content is always safe and appropriate for children. In the past, our educational material was scattered among our games, music videos and jokes-not the most academic of environments! So we created the StudyZone as a place where students can concentrate on their studies without distraction (whether at school or home).

The centerpiece of the StudyZone is our Directory, a topical collection of more than 10,000 kid-safe websites that are ideal for young researchers. Our popular Animals section contains descriptions of several hundred species, from insects to mammals. Our World Factbook is the only kid-friendly Web version of this noted resource. The Science section focuses on space and our Reference tools include an online dictionary and encyclopedia.

Earl and his companion, Stray Kat, are the unofficial mascots of Yahoo! Kids. Earl can find just about anything on the Web and delights in answering your children's questions on a variety of topics. You can find his answers across Yahoo! Kids. We invite your children to submit questions to Earl—but because he receives tens of thousands of questions every month, he is unable to answer every one.

We're delighted that the children who visit Yahoo! Kids have created our Jokes section. With more than 2,100 jokes (and counting) in dozens of categories, Jokes is one of our most popular sections. We invite your children to submit question-and-answer jokes, but regret that because of the large number received we cannot include every one.

Children love to send eCards to their friends—and we have one of the largest collections of free eCards on the Web. Just select a card, fill in the essential information and send!

We ask only for your child's first name and the recipient's first name and email address. We use this information only to send the e-Card and do not store it for any other use. Our eCards do not permit children to send personal messages.

In a word, yes. We combine the latest technology from Yahoo! Search with the wisdom and experience of our editors to ensure that Yahoo! Kids is as safe as possible. Human editors review and select everything on Yahoo! Kids—from our editorial features to search results. 

Yahoo! Kids does not include any features that permit your children to communicate online. We also do not collect personal information from your kids except in certain situations such as our free eCards; even then, we do not retain the information. See our Privacy Policy for more information.

With a site as popular as Yahoo! Kids, content finds us! Every day, we receive ideas from movie studios, game developers, music labels, TV producers, book publishers, websites and more. We consult with our colleagues across the Yahoo! network. And we surf the Web ourselves, researching current trends and adding to our Directory of kid-safe websites.

Let's take our Music section as an example. When new artists make a splash, we thoroughly research their background, song lyrics, photos and videos at Yahoo! Music. If they pass muster, we'll add them to Yahoo! Kids—but we're not finished with them yet. When new music videos are available, we read the song lyrics to be certain they are child-safe; if so, we watch the entire video to be sure all visuals are appropriate. Only then do we add the video to Yahoo! Kids. We follow a similar process for movie trailers, video clips and everything else on Yahoo! Kids.

Because it is targeted at children, Yahoo! Kids has a special privacy policy that you can read here. 

Yahoo! Kids Parents, intended for adults, follows the standard Yahoo! privacy policy.