CHILDREN'S TV GROUP DISBANDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 9, 1992                   TAG: 9201090309
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, MASS.                                LENGTH: Medium
CHILDREN'S TV GROUP DISBANDS
A pioneering group that spent more than 20 years pushing for better television for children said Wednesday it will disband, in part because federal rules are in place to govern kids programming.
But while Action for Children's Television says its work is largely done, the quality of children's TV hasn't gotten any better, said Peggy Charren, its longtime president.
"If you turn on on Saturday morning, you wonder why I thought this was an appropriate time for us to dissolve," said Charren, 63.
Charren said she preferred to fold ACT rather than change its mandate, which was to promote regulatory changes. She said grass-roots organizations and groups such as the national PTA were poised to continue pressuring for better children's programming.
"People who want better TV for kids now have Congress on their side," she said.
The group had lobbied for the 1990 Children's Television Act, which mandates stations to provide programming for children or lose their license. It went into effect Oct. 1, 1991.
Charren admitted, however, that "Children's commercial television is at least as bad as when we started, if not worse, because the commercials that interrupt the show are so much worse."
Education experts, who joined Charren on Wednesday in a panel discussion on children's programming, agreed.
Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Washington, D.C., Center for Science in the Public Interest, said a study of 19 hours of Saturday morning television showed two-thirds of the ads were for food, and 95 percent were for foods high in sugar, fat or salt. There were no ads for fresh vegetables, no public service announcements on nutrition and just two anti-drug spots.
"Most [children's] shows are junk food for the mind, just as most ads push junk foods for the body," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB