It's not whether or not something is animated. Animation is just a medium. There are plenty of quality animations and plenty of garbage live action shows also aimed at kids.
A more appropriate analogy would be saying that animation is a style of television and movies the way Italian is a style of cooking compared to Chinese. It's a method that can be used in different ways to make something differently than if you wanted to do live action, but both have the same ingredients that creators can choose to use or not.
You can have Italian food that's good for you or bad for you depending on the ingredients and amount and frequency consumed, just like animation can be good or bad for you depending on what went into the show and how you watch it or rather, what you take from it.
