"[...] the “comics” industry has never looked back. Not only do strip cartoons occupy an ever greater pkce in papers for adults, but a specialized press has developed for children, and today it is estimated that every American child reads, on an average, between 10 and 12 comic books’ a week. In every countrg where the media of expression have come to play an important part in daily life, there has been a similar development in the press catering for children. The film and the radio also count children among their most faithful public. It is therefore not surprising that government authorities as well as educators in many countries have become concerned about the influence that press, film and radio can exert on growing minds. At its Fifth Session, in 1950, Unesco’s General Conference adopted a resolution authorizing the Director-General “to collect and disseminate information on the methods used or contemplated in various countries to protect children from the undesirable influence which may be exerted by the press, the radio and the film, and especially to improve children’s newspapers and literature”. For the purpose of this study we have chosen 12 countries that are characteristic of different civilizations-Belgium, France, the German Federal Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Stales and Uruguay [...] It has not been practicable to examine the position of the children’s press in every country, nor has it been possible to study every paper existing in the countries which we have taken as examples. Only those about which we have adequate information arid which seem to us especially typical have been considered." (Preface)