One of Gen Z’s favorite hobbies is being nostalgic, and sometimes that hunger for the old days can lead to harsh realizations. As streaming services begin acquiring television shows that Gen Z grew up watching, it is becoming more apparent just how inappropriate some of the content is. 

Popular Nickelodeon shows from the 2010’s like “Victorious” and “iCarly” were the foundation of many peoples’ childhoods, and looking back, it’s alarming how often the characters were sexualized and how casual the writers were with innuendos.

An example of this sexualization is an episode of “Victorious,” which shows Cat, played by a 16 year old Ariana Grande, wearing only a bikini top and denim shorts, getting sprayed with water guns by teenage boys. This was not the only time in the show that the underaged actors were scantily clad. A lot of the outfits were tight and revealing, and only the girls would be dressed this way. 

Many jokes in these shows involve an adult making strange comments towards the younger characters or just being inappropriate with them. In “iCarly” it is implied that Freddie, a teenage boy, has seen Carly’s older brother, who is an adult, naked at least twice. In “Victorious”, there were many instances of grown adults attempting to hit on the younger characters. 

A lot of the dialogue in these shows are meant to be jokes that are sexual in nature or imply something like molestation or rape, which is very inappropriate and jarring to hear as an adult. Exposing children to these types of jokes is showing them that it’s okay if it’s for a laugh. It’s important to remember that both these shows are intended for audiences 12 and up.

Samantha Schrum, a Communications major at SSU, believes that the sexualization of underaged actors is very off-putting: “I’ve been thinking about when I get older and start a family and I don’t want my children seeing that,” Schrum said. “As a kid you don’t think of these things, but now as an adult it’s gross.”

It is true that most kids won’t even understand the inappropriate content in these shows, but that doesn’t mean they need to be hearing it in the first place. The creators of these shows made a conscious decision to include inappropriate content in media they knew was being consumed primarily by children, and that is wildly concerning. If these so-called jokes are meant to go over the heads of young viewers, then why even include them?

Instead of making entertaining shows that don’t exploit young actors, popular Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider got away with making teenagers act out strange and poorly hidden fetishes. Long after his shows stopped airing, it was revealed that Schneider’s alleged foot fetish may have influenced many of these plot points.

Many episodes of both “iCarly” and “Victorious” had a lot of scenes that were centered around feet. This includes characters touching and drawing on each other’s feet, pouring ketchup on someone’s feet. One episode of  “Victorious” was about the main characters using toxic fish to eat the dead skin off their feet to make them smooth. 

Schneider left Nickelodeon in 2018, around the same time that he was under investigation by ViacomCBS, Nickelodeon’s parent company, for allegations that arose during the #MeToo movement. Since Schneider’s departure from Nickelodeon, the network has produced shows like “Side Hustle” and “Danger Force” that seem to be more appropriate for their intended audience.

It can be difficult to keep children away from the sexualization and crude content that slips through the cracks, and writers, producers and creators should be held responsible for making it that way. Creating kid friendly content that does not exploit child actors should be a priority moving forward in the television industry.