Seems that when kids vote, turnout isn’t such a big problem.

Or so says Jeremy Diamond, executive producer of Pillars of Freedom and Smiley Guy Studios, who premiered the second season of Pillars of Freedom on TVOKids on Oct. 10.

The choose-your-own-ending TV and online production about two young animated dragons returns to TVOKids after a successful rookie season of 10 five-minute episodes for which young viewers got to choose between three possible endings.

“They (kids) are smarter than we give them credit for – they always picked the right ending,” Diamond tells Playback Daily.

Pillars of Freedom, produced by Smiley Guy Studios and Nexus Media Inc., is set in the mythical underground world of dragons called Moltonia.

The cross-platform production comprises a series of animated TV episodes and a website with an online game and episodic mini-games that teach young kids the value of the democratic process.

Whether the kids will vote in real elections when they are adults, or vote for the common good as opposed to their self-interest, remain open questions for now, Diamond concedes. For now,  he adds, young viewers proved they move easily between TV and online.

“Kids are so much more responsive to the multi-platform world. It’s not surprising that they had no problem going back and forth between the TV show and internet,” Diamond says.

The result last season had young people casting over 100,000 votes online for the story ending of their choice.

The voting followed a cliffhanger end of each five-minute episode, after which a host dragon came on screen to ask what the two main kid dragon characters should do.

Viewers were then asked to vote on an A, B and C ending.

The young people then had a chance to go online and see the endings of their choice, before making their one vote count.

Diamond said viewers intuitively chose, for all of the episodes, the ending that most effectively moved the storyline along.

And TVO was given proof of the Pillars of Freedom’s viewer engagement as a big spike in online activity followed each request by the on-air dragon host for the audience to vote for one of the three possible endings.

Now the second season of Pillars of Freedom picks up where the first season ended, with Hudley, one of two candidates for the mayor of Moltonia, taking office after successfully running on a platform of change.

The sophomore season will challenge viewers to hold mayor Hudley to her election promises by returning online to vote.

Following the lead of his young viewership, Diamond said he voted in the recent Ontario provincial election, even if half of his young staff didn’t.

“I do vote. I don’t know where I learned it. I was just inspired by the incredible reaction from the kids. When they were asked to vote, they went ahead and voted,” he said.