I think most will agree with your sentiments. Cheers.

On a related note; as a Dad of two pre-school kids, I notice how sexist ABC kids has become.

When there are main male and female charactors in the same show, all the "strong" charactors are female...
- The older sister
- The action hero
- The powerful witch
- the class bully (queen bee)

and the boys are often the but of jokes and play the role of 'supporter' to the female's 'leader' role.

Now I want my children to have a good life, and that means I want my sons to be masculine and my daughters to grow up feminine. Men don't marry amazons. Women ignore men that lack initiative and strength... Yes, women actually despise "puppy-dog boys" (what's a "puppy dog boy" - ask any young-ish adult woman).

With male suicide many times higher than females and boys struggling at school (probably because they don't respond to being given motivations and curricular designed to encourage little girls)

Please protect our children from feminist-inspired social engineering and propaganda.

I wonder why it is necessary for government to protect children from advertising or adult level material and so on. This is the parents job and the more governments intervene, the less responsibility is taken by those who bring children into the world in the first place.

Too often, I see parents who seem afraid or unable to say 'no' to their children or who indulge in long, adult explanations for their decisions with children who are far too young to understand. Children need certainty and consistency. Good parents set clear boundaries for their children and enforce them with love and good humour.

quote>>A dedicated TV channel mainly for children’s entertainment does...have three disadvantages.Developments in electronic communications may make a special channel superfluous.>>

this i think, can not happen[the medium hypnotises their minds[flashing lights, and swift scene changes ensure kids will allways be watching mindlessly ,leading to your second point
>> Too much television can harm children.<<

so much depends on what is being presented[and for how long] and to who by who, for what reason

like children is a rather vague definative, the biggest problem currently is the use of magic,demonic stuff all ages will sit through[not the bananas , seseme street you mentioned later

leading to your third point

>> There may be misconceptions about what is most suitable for children.<<

[there is no may about it] there currently is,and i have seen some really dangerouse stuff on the tube[aimed specificlly at kids[and yes on the abc]
like i used to watch science tv as a child that did science [not just going for the big bang blowing stuff up]

if the childrens tv goes in i would like to see it as more like school[but in shorter segments kids will sit through but that is either revision of the younger teachings ,but also going out to the more advanced levels] [but not dumbed down]

mixed with more advanced stuff all of it educative,in the larger sense[with the extra stuff explained in vision,words and writing,interactive, so even just watching they are learning to read or learning to apply what they are seeing to get the extra stuff

like not just the problem[but working through the processs of how to apply its solutions[by getting involved]but its a huge thing[bad programing appears to be cheap programing]so much depends on what they are really intending in putting together childrens programing

[there are many hidden adgenda's]and i dont trust the adgenda of those howard has installed to put in more sport and cooking and ..

[ok im over it]

I agree, Valerie, I can't see the need for the ABC to have a separate children's channel.

Quite apart from the many good points you've raised here regarding the likely effects on children themselves, is the fact that such a venture would be diverting scarce resources away from the day to day running of the ABC, already severely underfunded and struggling to maintain its programming standards.

Setting up a children's channel and quarantining it from advertising, could also be seen as the first step in clearing the way for the future introduction of advertising on ABC 1 and ABC 2.