Diaper set: Cartoon Network wants you

Cartoon Network is plenty popular with school-age children. Now it’s coming for the babies.

Starting at 9 this morning, the Atlanta-based network begins a two-hour morning block of cartoons for preschoolers, even children under a year old. Other children’s networks already create programs for children that young, and Cartoon Network’s new “Tickle U” block is aimed at improving the network’s ratings on weekday mornings, when it falls behind rivals such as Nickelodeon and Disney Channel.

Before, Cartoon Network relied on classic cartoons such as “Tom and Jerry” for the hours when older kids were in school.

“Up until now, the focus has been, ‘What can we put on the air that Mom or baby-sitter remembers fondly from their childhoods?’ ” said Alice Cahn, Cartoon Network’s vice president for programming and development. “I think there was recognition that there was an opportunity to do more.”

Cahn and other network executives also recognize that, despite repeated warnings from child-development experts, most parents allow babies and toddlers to watch TV. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 not watch television, but Cahn called that impractical. Television can be OK in small doses, she said.

“Children begin watching television -- and I think this is a conservative estimate -- as young as 12 months,” said Cahn, who worked on PBS’ “Sesame Street” before coming to Cartoon Network. “No, you shouldn’t leave a preschooler in front of a television for five hours. But no sane person would do that.”

To tailor the cartoon block to make it more appropriate for young kids, the “Tickle U” block contains no shows longer than 11 minutes (most are closer to five minutes). Commercials are shown only on the half-hour, not between every cartoon.

And to encourage parents to watch along with their kids, the cartoons have what programmers call a “mommy bar” on the bottom of the screen with parenting tips and G-rated jokes for grown-ups.

Still, parents should be careful about plopping infants and toddlers in front of a TV, said David Pelcovitz, professor of education and psychology at Yeshiva University in New York.

“Their brains aren’t wired in a way they can understand what’s going on,” Pelcovitz said. “Parents should know it may risk attention problems for kids later on. It’s just not a good medium for them.”

Cartoon Network executives insist that the “Tickle U” block will be paced especially for young brains and that they’re trying a new approach. Instead of trying to teach facts like various other children’s programs, the Cartoon Network shows are simply aimed at making kids laugh.

“You know they’re going to get the ABCs and 1-2-3s in preschool,” said Pola Changon, Cartoon Network’s vice president for on-air production.

Instead, the “Tickle U” cartoons are aimed at developing a sense of humor in young kids, which Cahn said is of more value than drilling facts into a toddler.

“We have all these increased ambitions for young kids. Are we pushing kids too far too fast?” Cahn said. “There’s almost a competitive nature of parenting, and we’re trying to work against that. If you’re holding flash cards in front of a 16-month-old, isn’t it better to hold up a sock puppet and play hide-and-seek? We want to be a safe and engaging -- and funny -- place for kids on TV.”