What is the ruling on animated cartoons shown to children, and are they considered among the Haram (forbidden) forms of depiction in Islamic law?

Islamic Sharia has prohibited the depiction, drawing, and sculpting of animate beings, with the exception of images used as toys by children to train them in household matters. As for watching animated cartoon drawings: if they are in human form, their ruling is subject to hesitation, but it is more likely that they are not considered true images. If they are in non-human form, there is no harm in watching them, as long as they are not accompanied by anything objectionable or do not distract from an obligation.

Cartoon films greatly affect children because they are their primary source of reception and upbringing. The positives include: providing the child with cultural and scientific information, developing their imagination and abilities, teaching classical Arabic, and fulfilling beneficial psychological needs such as instilling mercy and filial piety.

As for the negatives, they include: harming eye health, promoting laziness and idleness, hindering natural cognitive development, weakening the spirit of affection among family members, and presenting doctrinal, intellectual, and practical concepts that contradict Islam, such as intermingling and displaying adornment, distorting concepts of the afterlife, containing twisted stories of prophets, mocking Islam, or pagan beliefs, and instilling a foreign Western culture, which leads to the loss of good role models for the child.

It is clear from this that the legal ruling for watching cartoon drawings tends towards prohibition whenever the negatives increase, and towards permissibility whenever these negatives can be avoided. This necessitates striving to produce Islamic cartoon films that instill virtues and remove vices.