by Ashley McGuire
Every time I open my Netflix account to turn on Octonauts for my four-year-old, the streaming platform starts rolling videos from a content creator by the name of “Ms. Rachel.” Honestly, I found her saccharine tone grating and infantilizing, and so I banned my kids from watching her on those grounds alone!
But shortly after I first stumbled across her, a news story made its way across my screen about a Jewish organization asking the Department of Justice to investigate her for using her platforms to promote antisemitism. Shocked, I dug deeper and quickly learned that Ms. Rachel, who has been dubbed “a modern-day Mister Rogers,” also promotes gender ideology on her platforms, which are targeted towards the youngest viewers and have amassed more than 10 billion views.
It was the most recent of what seems to be a constant stream of reminders that children’s programming today is not what it used to be.
