Rastamouse In Racist Row

LAST week kids programme Peppa Pig was critisised by parents on parenting website Mumsnet, saying that the kids programme encouraged bad behaviour.  This week another children's cartoon in the headlines. Parents have complained on Mumsnet that children using the same language as the mice could be accused of racism.

The series Rastamouse – crime busting Rastafarian mice shown on Cbeebies and aimed at childen under six, was revealed as the most complained about children's programme last year. The show features an all-mouse reggae band - Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew.

It attracted more than 200 complaints because of the way it 'stereotyped black people' and because of the language used by the Jamaican mouse characters - phrases such as 'me wan go' for 'I want to go' and 'wha gwan' for 'what's going on?'.

It's run for two series and attracted 13 complaints when the first episode was aired last January. There have since been 200 further complaints.

The BBC has defended the programme.

A BBC spokeswoman said nine out of ten complaints had been about the language spoken by the characters.

"This was one of our most popular children's programmes last year.

"We've had a huge amount of positive feedback about Rastamouse, which continues to be a hit with our young viewers and which was consistently in the top ten CBeebies shows viewed on iPlayer throughout 2011."

None of the complaints were upheld.

With concerns like this being raised about kids programmes, are parents being overly sensitive? Are these the views of  most  parents or just parents who use sites like Mumsnet?