Children's Television Act

The Children's Television Act was enacted in 1990 in the United States to enhance television's potential to teach the nation's children valuable information and skills. The Act requires each television station that offers children's television programming in the U.S. to serve the educational and informational needs of children through its overall programming, including programming specifically designed to serve these needs (or "core" educational programming). In August 1996, the FCC adopted new rules to strengthen the enforcement of this statutory mandate. These new rules were:

• Adopt several public information initiatives designed to give parents greater information about the core educational programs being aired by TV stations (these initiatives are explained in greater detail below).
• Set forth a clear definition of what type of programs qualify as core programs: they generally must have serving the educational and informational needs of children as a significant purpose; be aired between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.; be a regularly scheduled weekly program; and be at least 30 minutes in length.
• Establish a guideline that calls for every TV station to air a least three hours per week of core educational programming.

A central goal of the FCC's new rules is to provide parents and other members of the public with greater information about educational television programs. This will help parents guide their children's television viewing and also encourage an ongoing dialogue between the public and TV stations about TV station performance under the Children's Television Act. To help accomplish this, the FCC's new rules require commercial television stations to identify core educational programs at the beginning of the program (such as with a verbal announcement or an icon), and to provide information identifying these programs to publishers of program guides and TV listings. The rules also require commercial TV stations to complete quarterly reports regarding their educational programming and to make these reports available to the public via their studios, public libraries, and/or the station's website. The FCC's rules require stations to complete a Children's Television Programming Report (Form 398) every quarter.

U.S. television networks broadcasting children's programming

In American television, an "E/I" icon is placed in a corner of the screen indicating a children's television program that meets federal educational and informational guidelines.

• The CW4Kids, formerly Kids WB (The CW Television Network) — Saturday mornings; often airs shows from Cartoon Network. (Not all shows meet E/I criteria)
• ABC Kids, formerly Disney's One Saturday Morning (ABC) — Saturday mornings, often airs shows from Disney Channel (a basic cable channel).
• 4Kids Entertainment (FOX) on Saturday or Sunday mornings. (Not all shows meet E/I criteria)
• PBS Kids (PBS) — has a channel on digital cable, it also broadcasts children's programming for up to 12 hours every weekday and every morning on weekends on its main channel.
• CBS provides children's programming on Saturday mornings as part of the KEWLopolis (formerly KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS) programming block.
• NBC provides children's programming on Saturday mornings as part of the qubo programming block. This block is repeated Friday afternoons on the ION Television network, and can be seen in Spanish on Saturday and Sunday mornings on Telemundo.