Kids and TV news + ISIS

[imparanoic]

Kids friendly news

Home - CBBC Newsround

[100LL]

I don't think with 10 she needs to watch the TV news and hear about sex slaves etc. Would she even be interested watching news in her age?

On the other hand, with her age I would naturally let her pick up whatever she starts picking up. In other words, if it's on the TV, somebody is watching, and she is around, then there is probably no need to selectively turn it off (unless they mention "extremely disturbing images" or something, might happen more often on US channels then in Europe, not sure if what they show is actually more graphic or they just add more "warning statements" though).

My little one is only 5. Not much interest in TV except her cartoons we selectively stream from Amazon. We actually never have the TV program on but once in a while I watch news in front of her. Seems cooking programs or nature/animal documentaries are more interesting at her age.

[bdw]

8-13 year old kids (upper primary, lower secondary) in Australia usually watch BTN.

Behind the News

[bdw]

For example, kids discussing the Paris attacks and ISIS here:

Questions about Paris: 24/11/2015, Behind the News

[HowardCoombs]

If you want to introduce kids to the news:
https://www.kidsdailies.com/

Our household was never into TV and we still are not. We have one that we use to stream and show movies on but it rarely gets turned on for broadcast TV. Our kids get their news mostly from Snapchat & Facebook

[TheBrit]

Depends on the children. 100% parental decision in this instance. Some eight year olds will be fine to expose to this, other fourteen year olds not so much.

Parents best place to judge for their own children.

[Lord Dashwood]

8-13 year old kids (upper primary, lower secondary) in Australia usually watch BTN.

Behind the News

I absolutely loved this at school and it gave me a lifelong interest in media and news watching...it also got us out of class for a bit...in those days we had to go to the 'TV room'!...I guess I was one of very few children who enjoyed watching 'Media Watch' on the ABC...

Media Watch (ABC TV)

I did my TEE in Oz, WA, and I remember the English curriculum being very focused on critical analysis of documentaries and other media presented as 'facts'...

It was interesting for me when I returned to the UK to see the mind-boggling array of choice when it came to newspapers, only to find that most people chose 'their' paper!

I had the Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Sun delivered every day! Some days you could find exactly the same story written from three completely opposing angles!!

Generally speaking, I think kids should be exposed to the media as soon as possible...as for more challenging stuff...ISIS and so on...it's got to be a personal decision as TB said.

My kids have seen stuff on TV...I've had discussions with them about terrorists, religion, gun control and so on...

I usually do it like this...I give my opinion and tell them that it is only my opinion and that there are other views...I then present at least one opposing view. I always advise my kids to look for evidence and to question anything...I think kids are pretty resilient and they're aware of death by about 4 or so anyway...

[shri]

Growing up, we read the news. Three or four papers got delivered to the house and my dad brought back a few more from the office. TV news in the 70s / 80s was not news in India.

With my son we started watching the morning news at a very young age. However I found it a bit too disturbing to explain stuff... Specially bits where it is so easy to kill people, how innocent kids have to suffer etc..

So we switched to watching Bloomberg... And then that arse hole world Bank / IMF head had to go get him self a hooker in New York. Bloomberg also went dark in our household.

As a household we still prefer print or online media. We have the option to not read what is behind some headlines and not visit sites that are too predictable....

[shri]

Do you want kids who soak up the news and then go out into the world responding to it, or kids who wake up and make a plan for their day based on their own ideas?

A couple of things ... I think your points are valid, but I do have another spin on that.

News should not be something you have to respond to. You form opinions and when asked (like we do very politely on Geo) you can voice your opinions. A lot of career paths depend on being able to read, form opinions and express them. The ability to separate the signal from the noise is what you get when you start digging a bit deeper into what is happening around the world. A healthy dose of cynicism, skepticism AND optimism are important to me.

What you're hopefully giving the kid is the ability to analyse and form an opinion from multiple sources.

Sounds pseudo as I read what I'm typing... but then that is me.

If you're a fan of Princess Bride, then view news as Iocane power to what awaits them in real life.

(And planning for the day... overrated!! <-- said with a huge smiley )

[Lord Dashwood]

Original Post Deleted

The Brothers Grimm...unabridged...