The season finale of the popular children’s cartoon Bluey has sparked debate among fans after the titular character was shown sitting in the front passenger seat of her mother’s car. Many fans questioned if seven-year-old Bluey was old enough to be allowed in the front seat, but according to Kidsafe Queensland CEO Susan Teerds, Bluey’s mother was following the law.
In Queensland, children aged four to seven years can only sit in the front seat if all other seats are occupied by children under seven years old. However, Teerds emphasized that Bluey should still be using a booster seat, as adult seatbelts are not designed for small children. “Remember, we have an airbag that could be fully deployed on the face,” Teerds said. “These adult seatbelts are made for your size Matt (Shirvington), not for a little seven-year-old or a little four-year-old.”
Despite the rules, Teerds said children were always safest in the back seat. “They are always safest in the back,” Teerds said. “You have a small seven-year-old and the law says they must be either in a restraint or an adult seat belt, but are they big enough? That is the (real question) question.”
The controversy has also raised questions about the future of Bluey, but producer Daley Pearson has assured fans that more episodes are on the way. “For the last bit of time it’s just been this half-hour episode we’ve been working on, but we will be making more Bluey,” Pearson said. “Every season we got to at the end, we didn’t quite see where it was heading next — which made it so exciting, you know.”
