SpongeBob SquarePants has long been a conductor for criticism. In recent years, he has been accused of promoting both homosexuality (a 2003 study in a US film journal concluded that SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick "are paired with arguably erotic intensity") and global warming "propaganda".
But now the criticism – or, at least, flag of concern – is coming for a paper published this week in the academic journal Pediatrics. Angeline Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, found that "fast-paced, fantasy television programmes", such as SpongeBob Square Pants, might compromise a young child's "executive function" – their ability to pay attention, problem-solve and control their behaviour.
Lillard observed 60 four-year-olds just after they had watched nine minutes of SpongeBob, as well as after nine minutes of a "slower-paced, educational" cartoon from Canada called Caillou. The children were also observed after drawing for nine minutes. "There was little difference on the tests between the drawing group and the group that watched Caillou," said Lillard. But the children's executive function was found to have been negatively affected by SpongeBob.
"It is possible that the fast pacing, where characters are constantly in motion from one thing to the next, and extreme fantasy, where the characters do things that make no sense in the real world, may disrupt the child's ability to concentrate immediately afterward," said Lillard.
The findings have been championed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has long urged parents to restrict the amount of television their children watch. For example, it says children under two should not watch any television at all and older children should watch no more than two hours of supervised, "educational" TV a day.
Nickleodeon is having none of it, though. "Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show's targeted demographic, watch nine minutes of programming is questionable methodology and could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust," it said in a statement, pointing out that SpongeBob is targeted at kids aged between six and 11, while the study focused on four-year-olds.
