Pop sensation Katy Perry was recently pulled off air for an all too showy performance on Sesame Street.  The singer of the hit song “California Girls” was singing a spoof of her 2008 hit “Hot n’ Cold” with the lovable Elmo. Perry was wearing an outfit that, according to worrisome parents, was too revealing of her cleavage. A clip of the episode was shown on YouTube, but after the flood of complaints the episode was later pulled off the air completely.  
    A few days after the controversy with Sesame Street, Katy Perry appeared on Saturday Night Live mocking the whole situation. Perry acted in one skit dressed in a very low cut Elmo shirt as a teenage girl that started to develop some prominent features. 
    Should parents have complete control about what is aired on television? It is understood that the parents found it inappropriate for Katy Perry’s outfit to be shown on public television, but are the children, the ones that are actually watching the show, old enough to comprehend what is appropriate and inappropriate? Keep in mind that according to sesamestreet.org, the average age of the children watching Sesame Street is two and up. By my understanding, the children are only watching the show to learn numbers and letters and see their favorite character; they are not watching the show to see if all the characters being shown are dressed appropriately.  Didn’t producers of Sesame Street know that Katy Perry is famously known, not only for her scandalous songs, but for her outfits that show tremendous amounts of skin? And didn’t they think that parents might not be too pleased by the choice of the producer’s decision to make Perry a role model to their younger children? Maybe Katy Perry shouldn’t have been wearing something so low-cut for the Sesame Street episode, but then again maybe parents shouldn’t be so uptight about the wardrobe of a guest star on an educational program.