Shirley Temple squibs: the 1930s without the Child Star Era

One assumes it was natural in that talkies gave kids a chance to shine, whereas the silent era really didn't

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Grey Wolf
 
How about some earlier cultural POD which makes U.S. audiences or theater troops consider the use of young child actors to be a bad idea.

Perhaps some well-publicized scandal surrounding the abuse of children used in a particular Vaudeville act. Certain groups overreact, and it becomes considered a morally gray area for a child under a certain age to be used as an actor for someone else's profit. This attitude grows as movies begin to rise, and leads to laws in some jurisdictions that make it illegal to produce or distribute movies which contain children. In places where it isn't illegal, there are still vocal protests by certain groups when cinema owners try to show movies which are found to have child actors.

This makes it difficult to make a lot of money off of child actors, and Hollywood shuns away from them. Perhaps the Hays Code even adds in a clause specifying the minimum age an actor must be to appear in a movie.

These restrictions would gradually be relaxed as child actors are seen in more and more foreign films, and could eventually disappear entirely, but it would be able to last long enough to avoid Shirley Temple.

Of course, this would probably butterfly away the Wizard of Oz.

You might find stories centered around children portrayed in animation instead, where you can get away with adults with high voices portraying the children.
 
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