Not all audio-visual entertainment is dreck and the reduction of all of it to that is elitist and shitty.

Some kids don't live in a place where they can interact with the natural world, for starters, because our society is awful.

Additionally, not everything even in kids entertainment is dreck either. You have your Bluey's, and you have pregnant Elsa spiderman keyword slurry. A spectrum you'll find in basically every media, kids and otherwise, between actual art that's made by people wanting to share something, and content-mill designed-by-committee (or AI) bullshit that's designed to keep your attention.

The unfortunately true part is now more than ever so much more of the latter of this spectrum is present than the former, because everything in our society is done for profit and not to make the world better, and it's far more profitable to make by-the-numbers repetitive minimum-viable-product garbage that people will tolerate rather than truly great things that take time and care to create that people adore. But that's a curation problem, not a problem with the media itself.

That is the point, no? That Bluey is not the average " audiovisual dreck ".

By the previous commenters opinion I assume it is. The point being to have people interact with the world instead of passively accepting high levels of stimulation for doing nothing. I believe it’s healthier for all humans of any age to engage with the input->output model of the world.

Nope, it stands out among kids shows, which are typically a wasteland of formulaic stories that amount to nothing and require no introspective thinking.

One thing I think that illustrates this is that my daughter will often have questions for me after watching Bluey. Like actual meaningful questions about life or how the world works. If she’s watching TOTS, she’s just sitting there mouth agape and maybe getting bored enough to just walk out of the room.

Again I think the premise here is that this sort of engagement with the world is better done, for example, as a conversation with an adult that can lead them to the same interesting questions and observations. I did this endlessly as a kid. I'd be sitting bored in a car and look at clouds and ask my parents how clouds worked. This wouldn't have happened if I was given a smart phone.

I don’t disagree, and we get that time and those interactions too in various other contexts. But when I need a break, I’m far more comfortable putting my kids in front of a show like Bluey than other shows because it engages their minds.

Parenting is a marathon, not a race. If it takes a village, parents need to be able to rely on the village from the time to time.

We're not designed to live in buildings either. Or to do math. So I'm not sure about this line of reasoning, because it suggests we should go back to hunter gathering.