Editorial: Soak up quality kids' TV

He lives in a pineapple under the sea but our favourite yellow man, SpongeBob SquarePants, is in hot water from a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that programme can cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds.

A US study randomly assigned 60 children to watch SpongeBob or a slower-paced cartoon or draw pictures. The researchers found that after nine minutes, when they took tests, the kids who had watched SpongeBob did worse than the others. The conclusion was that a typical SpongeBob episode of 22 minutes "could be more detrimental".

If adults were similarly tested after watching Shortland Street, I am certain that they would also do worse on mental tests than if they had been drawing. Why? Because they had just spent half an hour with their minds engaged by a story. This is what all great stories do - whether they are written or digital. Entertainment, like literature, draws us in and makes us think.

Adults like Shortland Street. No one criticises it for lack of self-improvement lessons. SpongeBob is one of the most popular kids' programmes ever. Are children not allowed to have fun with media too?

Parents are constantly bombarded by US academics telling us that television is bad for kids. Screens are blamed for everything from obesity to bullying to addictions.

There is now a moral panic about allowing your children to watch television. It's not quite on a par with sending them to school without breakfast, but bad enough that parents feel guilty that their children watch TV.

No one is suggesting that sitting children in front of the box 24/7 is a good move. But an hour of quality children's television each day is really okay.

The type of programme does matter. Kids should always watch age-appropriate media. But as Nickelodeon, the makers of SpongeBob point out, it is intended for 6 to 11-year-olds not 4-year-olds.

The programme does have benefits for children, for those who believe that everything children do should have a learning component. The characters are Shakespearean in depth - from the miserly Mr Krabs to the idiot-savant Patrick. The plots raise universal themes such as friendship, greed and Machiavellian scheming.

Now that Shakespeare is no longer a compulsory component of the New Zealand curriculum, our children are ever more dependent on popular culture to teach life lessons about love, jealousy, anger and humour. If we censor children's viewing, they miss out on rich contexts to teach about life.

Children's television can also enrich language. In our house, when we have burgers they are Krabby Patties. When I ask my children to do something, they reply "Aye aye Captain".

Television and media are a core part of young children's lives. Rather than censoring it, we can look how it grows children's literary futures.

SpongeBob is not intended to make our children geniuses. But it enthralls their imagination and causes belly laughs. In moderation, what's harmful about that?

Have your say -  email the editor on: editor@bayofplentytimes.co.nz