Are children going to continue to serve television by providing a trusting audience for its commercial message, or is television going to begin to serve children? Current children's programs are designed for the sole purpose of holding the attention of the broadest age span possible. Today's television fails to enhance the small child's surroundings and fails to show him constructive actions he can copy to resolve his own problems. During one period of monitoring children's cartoons in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was found that dramatic characters engaged in seven times as many destructive as constructive actions, and that 79% of the destructive actions were rewarded. Broadcasters have ignored the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirement of ascertaining the needs of their community by disregarding the needs of children. If the FCC insisted that children be included in the process of ascertaining community needs, networks would start providing more adequate programs. Until the FCC starts enforcing its ascertainment requirements, there will be no significant change in the content of children's programing. (MG)