Children S Television

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Barksdale Reading Institute have pledged a combined $11 million to fund the PBS Kids' series "Between the Lions," a learn-to-read program with high success rates in poor, rural communities. Several university studies have shown increases in literacy skills among children who watched the program at schools in Kansas, Mississippi and New Mexico.

A record $24-million fine looming against Univision Communications Inc. for airing children's soap operas to comply with a federal educational programming requirement may open a new front in the battle between regulators and broadcasters over what is televised on the public airwaves. Advocates for more child-friendly programs praised the fine, hoping it would send a strong message about the importance of a law they said many broadcasters half-heartedly tried to obey.

A weekly children's show on a Hamas-run TV station featuring a Mickey Mouse look-alike preaching Islamic domination was broadcast, two days after the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended. The giant rodent on the "Tomorrow's Pioneers" show has preached against Israel and the U.S. and urged Palestinian children to fight Israel.

A Mickey Mouse look-alike who preached Islamic domination on a children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode. In the skit, the "Farfour" character was killed by an actor portraying an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. He was killed "by the killers of children," said Sara, the teenage presenter. Israel has denounced the series, broadcast on Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa TV.

"Arthur" and "Barney" are OK for toddler TV-watching. But not "Rugrats" and certainly not "Power Rangers," reports a new study of early TV-watching and future attention problems. The research involved children younger than 3, so TV is mostly a no-no anyway, according to the experts. But if TV is allowed, it should be of the educational variety, according to the study by University of Washington researchers that appeared Monday in November's issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Starting today, everyone's Noggin is going to get a whole lot bigger. The commercial-free cable network aimed at preschoolers, with shows such as "Jack's Big Music Show," "Oobi" and "The Upside Down Show," expands from 12 to 24 hours. Simultaneously, the teen-oriented network the N, home of the popular "Degrassi: The Next Generation," also will expand from a 12-hour schedule to 24 hours.

Each episode of "Dora the Explorer" starts with the animated heroine dashing from her family's hacienda, waving to her Mami and Papi and scooting off into the jungle. "Ready to explore?" asks the brave and curious 7-year-old. \o7"Vamos arriba!"\f7 Just about everyone in Dora's world speaks fluent English and Spanish, their adventures are punctuated by salsa rhythms -- and young TV viewers can't get enough of the mix.

Television programming targeted to children ages 5 to 10 contains, on average, almost twice as many violent incidents as prime-time shows geared toward adults, according to a study released Thursday by a conservative media watchdog group.

Television watchdogs of all stripes are jumping on the bandwagon of a new parental control package that promises to help parents separate "good" programs from all the rest. The prescreened system from TiVo, called KidZone, uses age-based recommendations from diverse interest groups to help parents cherry-pick which live and recorded shows come into their homes.