Sponge Bob Square Pants Causing Problems For 4 Year Olds [VIDEO]

Even though Sponge Bob Square Pants lives in a pineapple under the sea.. the cartoon character and his crew are in some serious hot water according to some new research.

The problems were seen in a study of 60 children randomly assigned to either watch "SpongeBob," or a slower-paced PBS cartoon or were assigned to draw pictures with crayons & markers. Immediately after these nine-minute assignments, the kids took mental function tests; those who had watched "SpongeBob" did measurably worse than the others.

Kids' cartoon shows typically feature about 22 minutes of action, so watching a full program "could be more detrimental," the researchers speculated, But they said more evidence is needed to confirm that.

The results should be interpreted cautiously because of the study's small size, but the data seem to prove positive the idea that media exposure is a public health issue, said Dr. Dimitri Christakis. He is a child development specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital who wrote an editorial accompanying the study published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Christakis said parents need to realize that fast-paced programming may not be appropriate for very young children. "What kids watch matters, it's not just how much they watch," he said.

Bet this doctor doesn't have any kids.....HEY! We watched cartoons and it didn't effect me.....much.

What was your favorite cartoon?