.. I watch Spongebob from time to time, and I wouldn't say I'm unintelligent. xD;; Though I adore Adventure Time. <3 Of course, this is coming from a legal adult LOL
It all comes down to the parents. If your child shows signs of misbehaving or acting upon what they see, the adult needs to take charge. It isn't the televisions, shows or child's fault should they act upon what they're seeing. Take any cartoon show from the 80's or 90's. Those were violent when you look back at them. (I'm seeing people saying that old cartoons didn't have too much violence or cussing.. what era are you from?? XD) Cartoon characters smoking freely, wielding guns, killing each other (multiple times), monsters and more. The only thing that I would agree about is that the cartoon characters smoking may have influenced a lot of children into smoking, but back then they didn't have as much information cigarettes. They weren't all taught in class how bad smoking is for your lungs, for your health.
People bring their kids up different in Japan than how people bring their kids up in the U.S. They show a few things in animes over in Japan that would be considered lewd in the U.S. But to the Japanese, it's probably no big deal.
What does that say about America then?? If our children can't watch certain animes and shows at young ages but the Japanese children can that leads me back to my original point: it comes down to the parents. If Japanese children can be raised on those sorts of cartoons, and still turn out fine, then it's a very clear and loud statement that the parents of children in Japan are doing something that the parents in America need to do too.
And should you stick your child from day one to year five in front of any show, cartoon or not, they will pick up on language and actions. That comes back down to bad parenting should the child, expectantly, act upon all they've known for the past five years.
