TV WATCH : Sorry It’s Off the Air

Few consumer groups have touched everyday Americans’ lives the way Action for Children’s Television has for more than 20 years. Much of its work culminated in 1990, when it successfully championed a federal law that limits the number of commercials in children’s shows and requires TV stations to serve “the educational and informational needs of children.”

ACT has tried to ensure that children’s TV programs are not merely shills for advertisers pushing toys, candy and fast food. Now the highly regarded group is going out of business at the end of this year, saying that it has done what it set out to do. So why do we find the dismantling of ACT so unsettling?

Perhaps because children born today will spend more time watching television than doing anything else except sleeping, according to the National Commission on Children. In recent TV seasons, children were “entertained” with more than 25 acts of violence per hour.

We’re sorry to see ACT go because there’s still much work to do. Just last month ACT President Peggy Charren raised questions about about a children’s program hosted by a character who is a popular corporate ad symbol. More vigilance is required now by the Federal Communications Commission, which is in charge of enforcing the 1990 law, and by educational groups and parents. “ACT has always been very fragile,” Charren said in 1987. “ . . . Though it’s appropriate for the public to make noise, it shouldn’t be necessary to keep making the same noise forever.” We can only hope she’s right.