ABSTRACT
In the United States, the discourse on children and their media has been dominated by an assumption of media effects: inappropriate content influencing the behavior of a vulnerable audience. Three historical factors inform this discourse. The first, coming from social reformers in the early twentieth century, is that children need protection. The second is the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech for the press. And the third is the fact that our media industries are based on a for-profit, commercial system. By understanding how these forces come together we can step back and begin to understand the tensions between those who see children as needing protection, the demand by industry for profits, and regulatory systems that work to please both and never please either.
