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Why Was This Peppa Pig Episode Pulled In Australia Amid Child Safety Concerns? Here's What Went Wrong
The episode in question featured Peppa consoling her mother Mummy Pig to not be afraid of spiders after their friendly neighborhood crawler, Mr. Skinny Legs popped up in their home.
It is wild to imagine an innocent cartoon as Peppa Pig poses a child safety hazard. Well, not for the world but for Australia. A 2011 episode from Peppa Pig Season 4 was banned in Australia due to concerns over encouraging children to befriend spiders. While it may seem silly to most, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation felt otherwise and pulled the episode from airing in a country known for lethal spiders.
The episode in question featured Peppa consoling her mother Mummy Pig to not be afraid of spiders after their friendly neighborhood crawler, Mr. Skinny Legs popped up in their home. One Australian viewer was left unimpressed by the well-intended message and filed a complaint to take it off the air.
One Peppa Pig episode was banned in Australia
In Episode 22 of Season 4, Peppa and Mummy Pig spot Mr. Skinny Legs in their home. Scared, the mother wants it to be taken outside and away from their home. However, Peppa, her younger brother George, and Daddy Pig are all fond of him. Therefore, the empathetic daughter of the pig household tries to convince their mother to not be “scared” of Mr. Skinny Legs.
While the message was well-received throughout the world and most of Australia, a single viewer complaint in 2012 was enough to get it banned in the nation, per Collider. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation found it irresponsible to air the episode influencing children viewers to be fearless of spiders.
We can’t complain. Australia is home to the world’s deadliest of spiders and avoiding them in all situations is rather precautious. Yet, the ban might have been based on an exaggerated notion that children would do absolutely what is shown on TV or in this case, Peppa Pig. The network also removed it from all online platforms. As per reports, there have been 27 deaths in the last 100 years due to spider bites but none since 1979. Interestingly, Mr. Skinny Legs seemed to resemble the deadliest male funnel-web spider, which raised concerns over the matter.
Yet, it’s not the first time Mr. Skinny Legs was featured in the cartoon show. Earlier in Season 1, Peppa is shown to be scared of Mr. Skinny Legs after she finds him in the bathroom but befriends him later.
All 8 seasons of Peppa Pig follow the everyday adventures of the sweet little pig, Peppa, and her family. Focused on cohesive learning, the preschool cartoon is a go-to show for toddlers. However, showmakers today ought to proceed with a lot of caution with overconcerned parents prying over their children’s TV influences.
What happened in the banned Peppa Pig episode?
Mr. Skinny Legs crawls back into the Peppa Pig household in the Season 4 episode titled, Spider Web. While most of the family upholds a friendly demeanor towards their arachnid guest, Mummy Pig struggles to get over her fear of Mr. Skinny Legs, rightfully named so. Daddy Pig is bound to take him outside on the matriarch’s request when Peppa chimes in, “Don't be scared, Mummy.”
Regardless, Daddy Pig escorts their uninvited guest to the garden and eventually to a tree down the hill. Mr. Skinny Legs gets to work, weaving a spider web of his own while Daddy Pig enlightens his kids about the “hard work” of weaving a web and that one mustn’t ever break one. The following day, Mr. Skinny Legs spun a tidy web across the house to Daddy Pig’s car. To save the web, Peppa Pig lends her bicycle to Daddy Pig as he runs late for the office.
All seasons of Peppa Pig are available to stream on Netflix and Prime Video.
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