Peppa Pig is an extremely popular children's TV show which, like many children's TV shows, uses annoying talking animals to gently teach its young viewers various life lessons that they can take into adulthood. In one such episode, which aired on Foxtel on August 25, the show's eponymous star Peppa befriends a friendly spider called Mister Skinny Legs. The takeaway? There's no need to be afraid of scary-looking insects.Unfortunately, this kind of thinking poses a serious threat to the innocent, Peppa Pig-loving toddlers of Australia. Unlike in the UK, almost all of our spiders are evil and deadly and should ideally strike a very real sense of fear into the hearts of both children and adults. After a Sydney mother complained to Foxtel, the 2004 episode of the British show has been pulled off the air in Australia and banned from future broadcast. It's actually the second time this has happened—the ABC was forced to apologise after airing the same misleading episode back in 2012.Because Peppa has been censored in Australia, I'll recount the basic plot of the episode here for local readers. Peppa's father, the accurately named Daddy Pig, tells his daughter that spiders are "very very small" and "can't hurt you". Peppa then proceeds to make friends with Mister Skinny Legs, picking him up and letting him hang out in her doll's house and offering him food and shit. Seems a little overzealous, but okay.(Also, from what I can tell, even though the universe of Peppa Pig allows for some talking animals, spiders do not talk? Why is this?)While Australia is home to various terrifying arachnids (as well as snakes, sharks, crocodiles, etc), spider bite-related deaths are relatively uncommon due to public awareness programmes that typically start in primary school, and readily available anti-venom. Between 2000 and 2013, more than 12, 500 people were admitted to hospital after being bitten by poisonous Australian spiders. In 2016, a 22-year-old hiker was the first Australian to die of a spider bite in almost 40 years.Don't believe everything your talking pig dad tells you, kids.Follow Kat on Twitter
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