Animal instincts

A scene from the latest movie version of Boonie Bears.

Lu will soon publish a complete handbook on her rating system to offer parents TV-watching guidelines for their children, including suggesting themes for different ages and references to watchable foreign cartoons.

"Many parents don't yet have such awareness because they grow up watching inappropriate content themselves," she says. "Though we can't make it an official thing, the industry will turn to the good if all parents start to firmly resist what's bad for their children."

In 2013, after the 9-year-old boy accidentally set his friends on fire, some 20 cartoon channels and production houses, including the producers of Weslie and Boonie Bears, jointly made an open initiative saying they would no longer broadcast or produce works that contain "dangerous scenes" and "uncivilized language".

Domestic cartoon producers have focused on audience ratings for a long time, while ignoring issues like content safety and social impact, Song Lei, a researcher with China Communication Research Center, told the Southern Metropolis Daily. The center is an affiliate of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

He also said that as a result, homegrown producers found it difficult to distribute Chinese cartoon overseas.