Students express worry over inappropriate content in children’s TV shows and movies

In 2011, Disney Channel pulled two of its episodes containing offending jokes about anorexia from its program “Shake It Up.” The joke involved a guest-starring “supermodel” making a questionable remark to a teenage character, saying “I could just eat you up, well, if I ate.” Much of the attention towards the inappropriate attitude of the show was directed by actress Demi Lovato after she tweeted “I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actresses from the pressures of an eating disorder [referring to herself] and yet still make joke about that very disease… #nice.”

As students get older, inappropriate jokes in children’s media become more and more apparent. Although these jokes are meant to be discreet, many Aragon students believe they may have negative effects on younger viewers.

Sophomore Claire Wallace says, “I have seen violence, like shooting, inappropriate jokes, and other things in kids’ shows. In ‘Wreck-It Ralph,’ they call the bad guys ‘suckers.’ Its teaching kids to call kids suckers. My four-year old brother was calling people ‘suckers’ for weeks.” Like Wallace, many students feel the mature content present in these children’s shows can have an undesirable influence in young, impressionable audiences.

The effect that questionable content on TV can have on younger viewers varies from harmless to uncomfortable. Freshman Olivia Tandowsky notes, “I noticed that Ariel the mermaid always wore a clam shell top. I noticed my cousins and younger kids would dress topless to dress like her for Halloween.”

Sophomore Lexi Oliva adds, “There are a lot of references to sex and issues of that sort [in kid’s shows]. I don’t really watch many kid shows, but one time I watched ‘ANT Farm’ on Disney Channel and the whole show was centered around some kid asking a girl out. I have no idea why Disney is creating shows that have to do with dating when their target audience has no need to understand those concepts yet.”

Many sexual jokes and references have also been placed into shows on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The popular show “Spongebob Squarepants” has been known for strategically placing sexual jokes throughout its episodes. One episode even depicts the show’s namesake, Spongebob, giving his pet sea-snail Gary two bars of soap, saying “Look, Doubloons! Don’t drop them!” While it may seem insignificant, the joke is a subtle reference to the proverbial “Don’t drop the soap!”—a joke made about prison rape.

Inappropriate language finds its way into all manners of children’s entertainment. Freshman Mary Fitzgerald says, “The movie ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ with Jack Black, literally says the words ‘lame-ass’ [and] ‘child-bearing hips.’” Some have also claimed that the word “sex” can be seen discretely written in the sky of a scene in “The Lion King.”

Many older viewers of children’s shows are shocked to find content whose inappropriate nature escapes the younger viewers—for instance, sexual innuendos are often picked up by older audiences, but lost among the show’s target audience. Sophomore Samantha Bhaumik says, “On Disney Channel, I was watching this show with my sister called ‘Good Luck Charlie,’ and the kids told their parents to have fun, but not too much fun because they have enough kids already. Normally, that joke wouldn’t be too bad, but it shouldn’t be said on a kid’s show.”

Senior Greta Ruttenberg disagrees, “Sexual innuendos have always been a part of children’s media to entertain adults who have to watch the childish shows… It’s so much of what pop culture is.”

Sophomore Franziska Shelton says, “I hate to say it, but [kids] are bound to see something eventually because content like that is kind of everywhere, so I don’t think I would turn off the show if there was some mildly inappropriate stuff.”

With the availability of the Internet, TV, and other media sources, kids seem to be exposed to more mature topics at an earlier age. Innuendos possibly meant for adults watching movies and TV shows with their children are inadvertently picked up by the children themselves.

Bhaumik says, “Now, though, I think kids are more aware of more adult ideas than we were at that age. Kids are influenced by the TV, and TV shows are also changing to fit what the kids want, which are more adult ideas. Its kind of like a cycle.”

In fact, the incorporation of more mature content into children’s shows is not a new idea. Many Aragon students have experienced the realization that many of their favorite childhood shows contained adult jokes and situations.

Ruttenberg says, “It’s a bit like being lied to and also like seeing the light. At first you feel betrayed that they could put something so dirty into something that you watched as a child. Then, you realize that the fact that you get it now means that you are actually growing up and maturing and that’s cool.”

Although there is opposition, dirty jokes have remained constant through many years of television and aren’t leaving anytime soon.