The recent tsunami in Samoa and earthquake in Indonesia has seen our media flooded with disturbing imagery and distressing eyewitness accounts of the devastation and destruction wrought by these natural disasters.
While we need to be informed of events like these, unfortunately this need isn’t always balanced well against the needs of kids who are often watching morning news shows (especially during school holidays), and afternoon or evening news broadcasts. Many kids also see the news with their families over dinner. This means children are exposed to footage that would distress most adults, and often keys into their deepest fears of being abandoned, losing a parent, or being affected by something similar themselves.
Even when we do our best not to expose our kids to distressing footage or news broadcasts, the ubiquity of screens in waiting rooms, shops and even on the sides of buildings means that our children often see things that we’d rather they didn’t. And it’s not just footage: they overhear adults talking about frightening news events, see headlines outside newsagents or hear things from friends that keep them awake at night.
In ‘Adproofing’, we talk about the events of September 11, 2001 and how young children perceived images from that day: instead of understanding that news footage is replayed over and over, they thought that they were watching more planes flying into different buildings. And the more coverage they were exposed to, the more scared and anxious they were likely to be. As if what was really happening wasn’t scary enough!
Young children aren’t equipped to figure out whether something is or isn’t likely to happen to them. They struggle to put events or images like this into context. This kind of media exposure can lead kids to believe that the world is not a safe place – when what they really need is to feel that it is.
So what do we do? Protecting kids from news isn’t about wrapping them in cotton wool: young children just don’t see things or understand media in the same way adults do. That’s why minimising their exposure to it is so important. But sooner or later they’re likely to see, hear or read something that really upsets them. That’s when it’s great to have some ideas on how to talk to them about it.
PBS has some great resources on talking to kids about the news, broken down into different age groups. The American Psychiatric Association has some good tips too.
At times when the media are flooded with images and descriptions of something scary, keeping the TV and radio off when kids are around is a good way to minimise their exposure to it. If you’ve been shaken by a news event, try to keep normal routines going and do your best to manage your distress around your kids. It may help them to know that although you’re feeling sad about something that has happened, you’ll be okay.
If your kids ask you about a news event, try to find out what they know, or what they’ve heard about it first. That way we can avoid giving them extra information that they don’t need to know. And remember that kids can never have too many cuddles – especially at times like this.
Tania, I’ve written a round-up of resources in a couple of posts you might like (one of ‘em was “the 411 on 911: what do you say to children about headline news” on Shaping Youth here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=624
Also wrote about school shooting issues which can leave residual angst (e.g. Virginia Tech etc.) and was put to the test myself this year when our local crisis management comm ctr. went into red alert…(a HS down the street had pipe bombs to start off the school year & all schools went into ‘lockdown’ mode)
Here’s my post about the POSITIVE way it was handled as I think we need to also ‘diffuse and DEfuse’ the drama when possible since media ignites and fuels same so remarkably well: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=8100
Haven’t heard from you for awhile, so am wondering if you’re off on a book tour…Hope your holidays are merry and bright. Let’s chat again in 2010!