Action for Children’s Television

In the late 1960s, grassroots campaigns were active in the United States protesting the Vietnam War and advocating for civil rights. A new grassroots organization, Action for Children’s Television (ACT), was founded in 1968 by Peggy Charren in Massachusetts. Charren and her friends founded ACT to address concerns over the quality of the content of television programs for children and adolescents. The three major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, did not have many programs that were directed at children or focused on children.

Early in the history of children’s television programming, advertisers used it as a marketing tool. Children’s programming normally aired during prime-time slots, but as programming for all ages expanded, children’s programs were moved to weekday afternoons and then relegated to weekend time ...