When discussing movies, video games, TV shows, or any other piece of entertainment that focuses on children as the target audience, there seems to be a lot of people who shrug something off because “it’s for kids.” For instance, if someone says they aren’t a fan of the character designs in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, these individuals reply with “Who cares? It’s for kids.” 

Why would it be okay for something meant for children to be bad? Children deserve quality content like the rest of us do. If anything, children’s content should be better in some respects. For one, children’s entertainment often features important lessons for the viewer. This is obviously crucial for someone whose mind is still forming. It can even be helpful for adult viewers at times, and it adds meaning to the story. Also, children’s entertainment needs to be good enough to hold a kid’s attention and keep them wanting more. Otherwise, they’ll just move on to the next big thing. 

Don’t the people who disrespect media aimed at children realize that they must have grown up watching or playing something that was geared toward kids and actually well-made? They were likely exposed to older content like Transformers or Batman: the Animated Series, which are fantastic. Titans Go! is not the most well-animated show out there and it’s not very well-written, so it receives a lot of flak online. The response to this criticism is usually that it’s for kids, so why does it matter? It matters because these TV series, video games, and movies that we watch or play as we grow up have an impact on us. Stories that we experience, especially when we’re younger, can teach us and help shape us. Therefore, it’s vital that children’s entertainment is well-made. 

There are studios out there who have made it clear that children’s entertainment isn’t as important to them as well. A lot of TV studios have been putting out kids’ shows that are mindless and lazily made. They care more about pushing out as much content as possible as quickly as they can in order to turn a profit. Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! is evidence of that laziness. Thankfully, shows like Steven Universe, The Loud House, and Glitch Techs have proven that modern kids’ programming can be entertaining and educational with fantastic quality. It’s a shame that studios think the same way as these Internet trolls who don’t think children’s entertainment needs to be good. It furthers that harmful stigma and allows for children to be exposed to and grow up with mind-ruining content like Uncle Grandpa.

How would these folks feel if something meant for a target audience that they’re a part of was thought of in the same way? “It’s for people like you, who cares?” sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? 

Children deserve great movies, TV series, books, and video games just like the rest of us do. It’s time people stop thinking that kids’ programming doesn’t matter as much.