>>92682373Kids themselves seem to love it. The issue is that they then behave like Caillou, who never faces any consequences for being a brat. Most other shows aimed at small children will have characters demonstrate the consequences for misbehavior or the rewards for good behavior.
See, toddlers are not moral. They literally don't have a complete grasp of right and wrong yet, merely cause and effect. If they throw a fit, mommy gets mad and puts them in time out. If they make a mess, daddy makes them clean it up.
As they get a bit older (up to around 7) these all turn into rules, but they're all externally enforced. It's not that pulling someone's hair is morally wrong because it hurts, it's that it's against the rules and you'll get in trouble.
Caillou, of course, does not give a fuck.
The show wants Caillou to be relatable to small, pre-moral children, and yeah realistically kids Caillou's age will throw fits and misbehave and generally act like selfish cocks. That's fine. But then nothing happens, or he even gets what he wants when his parents drop everything to pacify Caillou. He doesn't go to a corner, think about what he did, and become sad about how he hurt someone, he doesn't learn literally falling on his stomach and kicking and slamming his fists in a hysterical fit is bad.
And so the kids watching this show see someone that's relatable to them and can possibly get the message that this is supposed to be normal. And so they get on their bellies and violently trash around when they don't get what they want when, before they saw that show, they never thought to do that. Seriously, the Caillou-style tantrums are the fucking worst.
It's probable that more bratty children are ascribed to Caillou than the show's actually caused, but Christ is it ever easy to blame.
