I'm a Little Disconcerted by Just How Many Child Molesting Anthropomorphic Animals There Are in the World of Youtube and Babybus

When you watch as many Pinkfong and Babybus videos on Youtube as I do in my capacity as the father of a three year old and a six year old, you notice certain things. I’ve discovered, for example, that there really only seem to be ten or so melodies that are repeated in minor variations, one of which, unfortunately, is the ear-worm tune for “Baby Shark.” 

On a more distressing note, I can’t help but notice that the shiny, happy worlds of Babybus and Pinkfong has its share of child molesters. That might seem utterly incongruous, or wildly inappropriate but the kiddie fondlers of Babybus and Pinkfong are there for a reason and serve a very valuable purpose. 

These creeps are part of Pinkfong and Babybus because child molesters are unfortunately part of the real world. These videos are consequently newfangled versions of the PSAs you used to see about the dangers of talking to strangers featuring icons like McGruff the Crime Dog. 

McGruff the Crime Dog may have been an animated, anthropomorphic talking animal but there was something weirdly grizzled and adult about him. He seemed like a cartoon dog who might have a drinking problem, a few ex-wives and internal affairs all over his ass about some questionably legal things he may have done early in his career. 

In this PSA, McGruff warns grimly that if the adorable little girl pictured gets into a car with a stranger she might never be seen again but the strange adult to be avoided is not also an animated, anthropomorphic talking animal 

In Babybus and Pinkfong videos on Youtube both adult sexual predators and the children they target are animated, anthropomorphic talking animals. In this video, for example, children are admonished to protect their bodies and their boundaries from adults, specifically a bespectacled pink hipster cat with ominous intentions when it comes to children. 

This is not the only video that the pink hipster cat with glasses who wants to molest children appears in. Within the world of Pinkfong it is canonical that this adorable animal cartoon is a sicko who you should stay away from. That’s an admirable message for children but the slick, catchy cuteness of the medium can’t help but dull the message. 

These upbeat music videos walk a fine line in that they need to indelibly establish that the dangerous adults being warned about are threats to be avoided without making the specific nature of that threat clear enough to traumatize children or expose them to ideas or images they’re not ready for. 

Oftentimes these videos end with the anthropomorphic adult talking animal either being arrested by anthropomorphic adult talking animal police officers or running away in a state of panic once children alert authority figures to their presence. 

It’s hard to say which ending is fundamentally more disturbing: the cute pink cat or animated wolf being led away in tears in handcuffs establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that the cartoon animal in the back of a cop car is, in fact, a sexual predator who preys on children but the animal getting away suggests that they’ll strike again. 

I don’t envy animators and writers with the unenviable task of making videos about disturbing subject matter like child molestation palatable to small children without compromising the very important lesson that you should stay away from strangers for any number of valid reasons. 

It’s more than a little weird that child molesters are represented by cute animals in these videos but it’s also important for children to realize that threats come in all different shapes and sizes. Not everyone who represents a threat to children is an unshaven man in a dirty trench coat. Sometimes the threat comes in a much more attractive, appealing package. 

It would be great if these videos and characters did not need to exist but as long as there are human predators who target children these curious cartoons will continue to exist to warn vulnerable audiences about the  ugliness of a real world full of predators and threats of the decidedly non-animal, non-anthropomorphic, non-animated variety.  

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