The young medium: Regulating television in the name of Canadian childhood

Abstract

In the 1950s, many Canadians purchased television sets and contemplated the broader meaning of this new technology for their country, their families, and particularly their children. This article examines the opinions presented to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting in 1956 and demonstrates that many adults called for continued and/or strengthened state regulation of broadcasting in order to protect and shape an imagined vulnerable and malleable child viewer. Dozens of civic and social organizations, educational institutions, labour groups, and private individuals argued that the medium's reorganization of space in the home, its potential as a tool to shape young lives, and its commercially sponsored programs and advertisements justified continued or heightened government control of television broadcasting. The context of the Cold War and postwar welfare state priorities shaped adults' statements and beliefs about children's television consumption.