More than ever, children witness many, sometimes traumatizing,
reports events on TV. That seems that violent crime and negative news is unabating.
Foreign wars, healthy disasters, terrorism, killers, incidents of child abuse,
and medical epidemics flood our newscasts daily. As well as the particular grim
wave of recent school shootings.

All of this particular intrudes on the particular innocent associated with kids. If, as researchers
say, kids are generally like sponges and absorb everything of which continues on around these people,
how profoundly will watching TV reports actually affect all of them? How careful do
parents need in order to be in tracking the flow involving news into the particular home, and exactly how can
they find an approach that actually works?

To answer these kinds of questions, we converted to a section of seasoned anchors, Peter
Jennings, Karen Shriver, Linda Ellerbee, and Jane Pauley–each having faced the particular
complexities of rearing their own prone children in a new news-saturated
world.

Entertainment News : 6: 35 p. m. After an exhausting working day at any office, Mommy is hectic
producing dinner. She theme parks her 9-year-old little girl and 5-year-old boy in front
with the TV.

“Play Designers until dinner’s prepared, ” she advices the little kinds, who,
instead, start out flipping channels.

Mary Brokaw on “NBC News Tonight, inches announces that an Atlanta gunman
features killed his spouse, daughter and kid, all three which has a hammer, before going upon
a capturing rampage that foliage nine dead.

Upon “World News Tonight, ” Peter Jennings reports that a jumbo jetliner along with
more than 3 hundred passengers crashed in a spinning metal ball of fire at a Hong Kong
airport.

About CNN, there’s a review about the earthquake in Turkey, together with 2, 000
folks killed.

On typically the Discovery channel, will be certainly a timely exclusive on hurricanes plus the
terror these people create in young children. Hurricane Dennis has recently struck, Floyd is
coming.

Finally, they will see an area news report about a roller coaster accident from a New
Jersey enjoyment park that eliminates a mother and her eight-year-old little girl.

Nintendo was never ever this riveting.

“Dinner’s ready! ” shouts Mom, unaware that will her children may be afraid
by this menacing potpourri of TV reports.

What’s wrong using this picture?

“There’s a great deal wrong with it, but it’s not really that easily fixable, ” notes Bela
Ellerbee, the inventor and host regarding “Nick News, very well the award-winning information
program geared intended for kids ages 8-13, airing on Nickelodeon.

“Watching blood and gore on TELEVISION is simply not good with regard to kids plus it does not do
much in order to enhance the existence of adults both, ” says typically the anchor, who aims in order to
inform children about world activities without terrorizing these people. “We’re into
extending kids’ brains plus absolutely nothing we didn’t cover, ” like
recent programs in euthanasia, the Kosovo crisis, prayer on schools, book-
banning, the death penalty, and Sudan slaves.

But Ellerbee focuses on the necessity of parental supervision, protecting
children through unfounded fears. “During the Oklahoma City bombing, right now there were terrible images of youngsters being hurt in addition to killed, ” Ellerbee recalls. “Kids
desired to know should they were safe within their beds. In studies executed by
Nickelodeon, we all found out that kids find the news the almost all frightening factor
on TV.

“Whether it’s the Gulf War, the particular Clinton scandal, some sort of downed jetliner, or what
happened in Littleton, you need to reassure your children, over and over again,
they are going to be OK–that the main reason this kind of story is news is that IT
RARELY HAPPENS. Reports could be the exception… nobody continues on the air
happily and reviews how many airplanes landed safely!

“My job is to place the information directly into an age-appropriate framework and lower
stresses. Then it’s actually up to the particular parents to keep track of what their kids view
and talk to them”