Action for Children's Television: How Pediatricians Can Help the ACT

Abstract

I should like to call to the attention of the members of the American Academy of Pediatrics the organization Action for Children's Television (ACT) which was founded in 1968 by concerned mothers. ACT's stated purposes are: (1) to persuade TV networks, stations, and advertisers that children are special human beings and not simply miniature consumers; (2) to encourage and support good entertaining programming for children of all ages; (3) to eliminate commercialism from children's programs and to require a reasonable amount of programming each week designed for children of different ages; and (4) to substitute a new system of financial support for children's programs by commercial underwriting and public service funding, in the belief that this system would look toward the benefits to children rather than the profit to the advertisers.