If you've been innocently letting the kids watch shows like Peppa Pig and Frozen to keep them quiet while you get the housework done or dinner made, you're not alone.
But although they may keep the kids quiet for a few hours, it seems they're causing more harm than good.
It may come as quite a shock but a new study has found that cartoons like Peppa Pig and kids' movies like Frozen are actually "too violent" for young children.
Violence and pain
How, you might ask?
Well, according to the research, they are displaying violence and pain in negative ways.
Apparently, children's entertainment is solely portraying pain through violence.
Experts believe this can have a lasting negative impact on them.
Concerns
The study's team analysed 52 hours of children's movies and TV shows and they identified an astonishing 454 incidents of pain throughout the viewings.
The team revealed the most common type of pain in these shows/movies was violent pain and injury.
General pain like tripping or scraping your knee only amounted to 20% of incidents.
And the experts are concerned about other characters' reactions to pain.
Lack of empathy
They found that 41% of characters who witnessed others in pain were not empathetic.
This could have a concerning impact on how our own children react, they warned.
Speaking about their finding, Dr Abbie Jordan of the University of Bath in the UK said: "Pain, in particular chronic pain, can have hugely debilitating effects on the lives of children and young people right through into adulthood.
“Part of the challenge in this is how we talk about pain.
"We know children spend increasing amounts of time watching these influential programmes and films and that what they depict feeds through to their understanding and awareness of an issue.
"Our assessment is that these programmes could do much more to help children understand pain by modeling it in different ways."
She said it is "crucial" that they show "more empathy when characters experience pain".
Dr Jordan added: “That’s important for how children interact with others when one of them experiences pain, such as when a friend might fall over in the playground or when they go to the doctors for routine vaccinations.”
