They're banned in this household.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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My son doesn't watch it and we have no intention of starting.
Children's entertainment has been doing that for a century. But the tactics are getting more elaborate, planned, strategic.
It's been a constant development, and it's getting worse.
Pretty horrifying, that video you linked. 4.5 billion views? 7 Billion?
You always, always limit how much they watch. Never ever let YT autoplay take over.
A while back there was an interesting article comparing Bluey and Cocomelon: https://www.readtrung.com/p/why-i-love-bluey-and-hate-cocomelon
Once a month, children are brought to [a London studio], one at a time, and shown a handful of episodes to figure out exactly which parts of the shows are engaging and which are tuned out.
For anyone older than 2 years old, the team deploys a whimsically named tool: the Distractatron.
It’s a small TV screen, placed a few feet from the larger one, that plays a continuous loop of banal, real-world scenes — a guy pouring a cup of coffee, someone getting a haircut — each lasting about 20 seconds. Whenever a youngster looks away from the Moonbug show to glimpse the Distractatron, a note is jotted down.
“It’s not super interesting, what’s on the Distractatron,” said Maurice Wheeler, who runs the research group. “But if they aren’t fully focused, they might go, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ and kind of drift over. We can see what they’re looking at and the exact moment when they got distracted.”
What a waste of all lives involved.
They actually did something similar when creating Sesame Street (and I think Blues Clues); the main difference being the goal was to make the educational parts the most attention grabbing, so kids with parents who just plop them in front of the TV would be more prepared for school.
comparing Bluey and Cocomelon
ugh, that's not even a comparison.
Fun fact btw: Bluey started off as an Australian public broadcasting production. Bought by Disney now, but I suspect they made a deal that gives them artistic freedom. Still sad that money wins.
Good news for you today, Disney does not own Bluey. They're just paying for the rights to stream it on Disney+ - https://www.themarysue.com/bluey-is-on-disney-but-is-it-a-disney-show/
Disney licenses the distribution/streaming rights to Bluey, and just signed the theater and streaming rights to the upcoming Bluey movie (scheduled for 2027) but doesn't own merchandising rights. They did, however, just recently sign a deal for rights to use the characters in theme parks and cruises.
Thanks, that's good to know. Maybe it's still on public broadcasting in Australia.
The things people write about Bluey... but I understand, I was very touched, too.
Thanks for sharing! It was interesting (and horrifying) read!
My twins were hooked on it for a while. Made us parents absolutely insane. The kids learned a lot of simple English words though, so it wasn't completely for nothing.
Agreed. The toddlers I taught loved to watch cocomelon, but not addicted too much. They just followed the characters to act and play. They learned some words and also learned to get along with others nicely.
This is nightmare fuel. Is this a real thing?
Edit. I thought that was mr beast in the thumbnail and expected the worst. Glad it's that guy Rybread. Good video!
You can tell it's not mr beast because he's not making that stupid false smile.
I think it was the mustache that made me think it was him. You're absolutely right.
Did people not know that?
I would've guessed every single show for kids on YouTube is meant to be addictive. Probably even on regular/streamed TV. Bluey though, can do no harm.
I gatekeep my children's access to YouTube/Netflix/Disney content, basically only allowing certain channels.
Super Simple Songs is one that my kids basically learned a bunch of songs from, and remain part of the audio playlists that I put together for my kids. The affiliated "shows" (Bumble Nums, Mr. Monkey) seem OK by my standards. They seem professionally produced and not geared to manipulate kids' attention spans. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they're truly educational, but they do introduce some concepts that I can flesh out on my own with my kids.
Storybots on Netflix is probably my favorite thing for them to watch. Good educational content that is actually accurate without being overwhelming. The songs are pretty fun, too.
Bluey is great. There's a genuineness to it that is pretty unique in children's programming.
Octonauts is good for teaching about animals in the ocean, but I don't enjoy watching it myself. They don't really bake in stuff to keep the parents engaged, in my opinion.
PBS content (and Sesame Street content wherever licensed) seems pretty good. My kids don't actively stay as engaged as with some shows, but they have enjoyed Wild Kratts, Daniel Tiger, Curious George, and some other programming.
I actively avoid Paw Patrol, and Cocomelon is outright forbidden in the house. Also, a bunch of colorful kids channels on YouTube are banned, too. I don't need that short attention span brainrot, especially when my kids already likely have mild ADHD (just as I do).
Things will get more challenging as they get older, but while they're still in toddler and elementary age I can still largely keep them away from the vast majority of YouTube and steer them towards professional/studio produced programming, especially by nonprofits.
Bluey is great. There's a genuineness to it that is pretty unique in children's programming.
Octonauts is good for teaching about animals in the ocean, but I don't enjoy watching it myself.
These are the two I've watched. We have no paid streaming services. Couldn't agree more about both of those points you made. 👍
We also get Paw Patrol, and the kids love it. Or at least used to. What specifically makes you actively avoid it?
I'm fully aware that I sound like a snob when I say this, but the world building in Paw Patrol seems like a mess. And sure, I get that people get bored of the same rescue plots over and over, so they had to introduce a villain (Mayor Humdinger and all his cat allies trying to cause trouble), and then some kind of supernatural meteor that gives the dogs super powers, and then some mermaid dog society in the mix. Like, pick a lane: is this show about first responders or superheroes or mermaid dogs? And what should I make of the fact that cats are inherently villainous, unless they can talk, at which point they're good guys?
Just seemed like it's sloppy world building and I don't like it, so I don't need my kids watching it, either. Not a particularly good reason, but my kids aren't really clamoring for it.
😂 I'll take it!
Blocked on all streaming services we have. We thought it was harmless but annoying, but we got kinda spooked by how much that show in particular grabbed our kid's attention and didn't let go. For hours.
She'll get tired of other shows and ask to play, etc. But not with Cocomelon and its knockoffs. We just figured that couldn't be right. Then we read about how it was designed to hook baby brains... and that was the tipping point for us to banish it forever.
Of course, it also saved our sanity from those FUCKING SONGS. Plus I'm a big fan of animation in general, and that show BLOWS in that regard, to the point where I get kind of offended. So yeah. Good riddance.
Yeah fuck cocomelon. This is apparent immediately