A teenager’s week working at the Australian Children’s Television Foundation

I’m Eliza, a 15-year-old high school student. I've just completed work experience at the ACTF or Australian Children’s Television Foundation.  

As a teenager, most of the media which I consume nowadays isn’t for children, unless it’s a show I watch while I’m babysitting, so coming into the ACTF I felt a bit apprehensive. However, upon entering the colourful and warm ACTF office filled with paraphernalia from nostalgic and classic Aussie kids’ TV shows, I felt immediately welcomed and at home. 

As a kid I grew up watching shows like Little Lunch, The Inbestigators and Round the Twist. At the end of these shows I was used to seeing the funny little graphic of the smiling thumb in the yellow bubble. However, I had never really given it any second thought until seeking work experience at the ACTF and having the opportunity to meet the amazing people who work at the ACTF and learn about their mission to bring quality entertainment to kids.  

During my work experience, I had the opportunity to meet almost everyone and even the chance to have a sticky beak at some of their projects. The legal team was my home base during my time at the ACTF. Francisca and Andrew deal with the legal side of children’s media production and distribution (like contracting projects and managing rights) and they also conduct research to advocate for the child audience to be represented in the Australian television industry, and work to understand policy and law wise what is happening in the screen industry. The legal team works closely with CEO Jenny Buckland and the content team, Bernadette, Paul, Jo, Li-Kim and Lauren, who work closely with producers of TV shows being developed, provide notes on every draft and cut, and are involved in almost every stage of the TV show’s production. I met Tim and Rob who work in international distribution, selling ACTF content all over the world. I also had the chance to meet with the Education team, Bridget and Kaede, who create educational resources for ACTF TV shows as well as student and professional development events. Todd, the graphic designer, created the iconic logos, graphics and brand identity for projects like The Inbestigators and Crazy Fun Park. Michael manages expansive digital storage of all the ACTF shows and formats all the content that is sent out to broadcasters and streamers around the world. John, Mikhaila and Joanna manage the finances of the whole operation.  

It was really refreshing spending a week with a group of people who are genuinely dedicated to making quality media for kids which represented the diversity and identity of Australian children. Overall, this experience has really made me aware of the work that actually goes into helping create and making sure that good quality Australian TV shows are available to Aussie kids. For so long I have taken for granted the fact that shows like Little Lunch, Round The Twist and Hardball always were available to me. But now I know without the considerable effort made by the team at the ACTF, these shows probably wouldn’t have been possible.   

Now as a 15-year-old, at home we have subscriptions to Netflix and Disney Plus. After turning twelve it can feel as if there is an unspoken shift where all my friends and I (prompted by the fact that ABC caters mostly for children and adults, not the teenagers in between) have begun watching TV shows and movies on streaming services instead of ABC. With free services we watch on SBS on Demand sometimes and ABC iView (mostly for Gardening Australia). Our TV is controlled by an Apple box, so we usually watch TV on demand and I can basically choose to watch whatever I’d like. Sometimes I like to watch movies or television series on my laptop (usually balanced on the top of a cushion in my bed.) However, mostly when I watch TV, it’s with my parents. At nighttime we’ll drink tea and sit on the sofa to watch an episode of a TV show. I honestly enjoy this habit much more than the shows we watch themself.  

I’ve recently struggled to find funny and interesting Australian content, specifically for teenagers. On Disney Plus and Netflix it feels like what there is for teenagers is really saturated into the one genre of American dramas about American teenagers at high school which feels very detached and unrelatable to my life as an Australian teenager. So I’ll usually end up watching what my parents are watching - Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries, Ted Lasso, The Bear and Wednesday.   

Talking with my friends about the TV series that we watch, I’ve noticed (most likely because I don’t have social media compared to most of my friends who do) I am more inclined than they are to regularly watch TV shows. They don’t really enjoy the TV shows on their streaming services and won't watch them if they have the option to watch something else on social media. Somewhere in all this confusion it can be easy to overlook really good quality TV shows for Aussie teens that we don’t realise exist. Over my week at the ACTF I’ve been introduced to Australian TV shows for teens such as The PM’s Daughter, More Than This and Crazy Fun Park which are all available on the ABC.  

For example, Crazy Fun Park, is an Australian made teen targeted TV show, which underneath the campy horror and comedy themes was genuinely enjoyable, funny and relatable. Set in the expansive suburbs of Victoria, it deals with themes of loss, loneliness and adolescence. It's disappointing that until work experience at the ACTF, Crazy Fun Park wasn’t a show I was aware of. It seems that the ABC and similar Australian broadcasters and shows are overlooked by teenagers. We don’t know that there is this interesting, funny and good quality Australian teenage content available to us. Not only TV shows like this, but awareness for them is needed now more than ever - their lack of visibility drives teens to alternate entertainment like social media, streaming services and to media which is more America-focused, biased and overall more damaging to our mental health. Quality Australian teen-targeted TV shows like Crazy Fun Park can really provide much need modern, perspective and representation of adolescence in Australia. And it’s not that this isn’t happening; it’s just that we aren’t seeing it. 

Good, interesting, and representative media can really influence the attitudes and mindsets generations of Australia children. In many ways it can teach kids how to navigate friendships, school, different personalities, and cope with change, alongside the Aussie characters who Australia and I grew up with. As a kid I always resonated with Melanie’s strong morals and Battie’s sweet and quiet nature in Little Lunch and Ava from The Inbestigators’ strong charity fundraising agenda. It was characters like these who I admired and ultimately helped me become the person I am today, so I think what I learnt - or rather relearnt - during my week of work experience is just how important these TV shows and the work the ACTF has done has been to me and generations of Aussie kids.