Paranoid. And boring. Lol.

They screamed it was rotting brains, but rewatching the first season as an adult? It was so clever with the word play and jokes and scenarios.

Now we have actual brain rot, and some of the same kind of parents of the new generations just sit their kids in front of it without watching themselves or doing any research because the title says educational to get clicks, while the content is oftentimes AI slop, or just content farmed garbage with no actual value.

This popular kid in elementary school (we were like 9 probably?) was OBSESSED with SpongeBob; his whole room was themed it, and his school supplies, shirts. But his parents didn’t let him watch it, because, direct quote, “they say it rots your brain”. Saddest story ever. I wonder when he was old enough to exercise free will what he thought about the show.

At the time? It was a strict conservative parent thing. Shrug.

In hindsight? Bad call. Early seasons show kids how to be good people. See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqx0Lx8gS8Y

Laughs. This is a show for children?

Yeah, it’s huge.

Chews. Surprisingly profound for a narrative about a sponge.

But if parents excercised that kind of caution today, and forbade doomscrolling, well, that would be great.

Kids can handle much more than most adults give them credit for. If someone’s concerned about their kids misunderstanding something, maybe… yah know… watch it with them?

0% support to authoritarian-wannabe parents who try to control their kids’ access to information.

If more parents policed their children’s media habits it would be harder for politicians to sell surveillance as children’s safety or at least govt wouldn’t use children’s safety as a scapegoat for surveillance

Trying to censor kids shows isn’t feasible. They’re going to find out anyway, or it will be a massive culture shock when they eventually hear their first swear word as adults. I’d rather take the opportunity to talk with my kids about it if they watch crap.

SpongeBob doesn’t really bother me, but if they watch Alvin and the Chipmunks I always ask them to use headphones, because I can’t stand that shit.

As a kid who wasn’t allowed to watch it because it was a “mindless” show according to my parents, I feel irritated that they misjudged it likely based on a few random moments they chanced across. We didn’t have cable so it didn’t matter much anyway

I have heard some kids say their parents banned it because the voice acting annoyed them, which is fair tbh. But I personally would allow the kid to watch it with headphones in that case.

I get the sense most parents that banned it did so for a similar reason to mine; they saw it as a dumb show about dumb characters doing dumb things. I also saw it that way as a kid because I had a preconceived opinion after hearing that from adults, and any random out of context clip I might see at a friend’s house confirmed that bias.

After having watched some in college to catch up after being deprogrammed by friends (and getting sick of meme-induced FOMO), I now consider it a smartly written show about characters of (mostly) average intelligence doing (mostly) neutral and sometimes dumb things, lol

Those parents probably trying their best to curate their children media. That’s literally their job. Parenting means they make these decisions.

What do I think of parents that make their kids do religious things / cultural things?
Or make kids learn a foreign language / music?

They are better bc they are trying. Versus the parents that just give an ipad to the kid so they shut up.

I wasn’t “allowed” to watch it, not because my parents had a problem with it but because we didn’t have cable TV. I miss some references other people make about SpongeBob or other Nickelodeon / cable TV stuff, but I’ve never felt like I missed out much. Especially now as an adult, I just get to ask people about something they’re nostalgic for from childhood and have interesting conversations.

I did see half an episode of Nickelodeon Guts once and would have watched the heck out of it if we’d had cable.

If their kid reached SpongeBob watching age past the time of the first movie then they did their child a favor

I hold them in much higher esteem than people who randomly capitalize words online.

That’s up to the parents, so I have no feeling one way or the other.

I think that is silly.

It is not my kid and I am not parenting them, so it is not my business.

Why did you capitalise “never” and “watch” and not “Spongebob”

I loved spongebob, the first few seasons anyway. I was allowed to watch it too, mostly because I was about 13 years old.

I could appreciate a lot more than younger kids, so I don’t know if they really missed out on too much.