What age did you begin to let your DC watch the news?

[MissusLindt]

There was a thread yesterday about inappropriate images shown in church. While most posters responded that they felt the same as the OP, one poster said that she felt it was important not to shelter our DC from the realities of the world.

In theory, I totally agree with this concept but have difficulty deciding when the right age is to let the children watch the news.

My 6yo DD is pretty sensitive and I would not like to upset her by some of the stories on the news. 4yo DS is more laid back and cool, but he did have nightmares recently after watching a scary cartoon.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I do not remember the blood and gore images on our screens when I was young. The most shocking images that stick in my mind from my childhood are the ones of the famine in Ethiopia.

What do you think?

DS1 (7) is very interested in the news,but I try to watch it at the same time so I can distract/switch over if necessary. All my DC like Newsround, although we miss it more often than not. And, it's not strictly news, but they love the One Show.

The radio is one most of the time too, but I guess that's not so bad because no graphic images, obviously.

LOL Jux.
My friend was totally embarrassed by her then 3yo DD shouting out loudly in the supermarket, "There is my friend Chancellor Schröder" at the magazine rack.

I'm not sure what 'favours' watching the news does them to be honest.

That the world can be a big and scary place,that there are horrible things that happen. Gaza,the Belgium shooting,Baby P,9/11 etc,etc,etc. I don't thing young children can compute that what they see on the news isn't happening in their road,they don't have the skills needed to keep things in perspective ie that thankfully they aren't an everyday event.

I was upset enough by recent news stories and I am an adult. Why anybody would want their young dc to feel the same horror is beyond me.

I want my dc to grow up thinking there is a big world out there that they can be part of. I don't want them to be so scared they don't venture out of their county. We live In Devon but regularly travel to London to see the inlaws,friends etc. They've been travelling on the underground from an early age. I'm sure if I'd let them watch news coverage of the tube terrorists they wouldn't be quite so confident.

You can still teach kids about world events but by talking,books and eventually shows aimed at kids such as those already mentioned.

My parents sheltered us to a certain extent,very strict over the little TV we had in those days. We still grew up confident coped with a forces childhood, went off to uni at 18 in a strange city,travelled(little sis travelled round India on her own working with Mother Teresa's nuns)etc,etc.

I think a lot of those letting young kids watch the news simply want to watch it themselves and can't be arsed to switch it off.

We tend to allow the kids (8, 6 and 5... and a baby) to watch the news if we're watching it. We do, however censor it a bit. When there was a campus shooting in the US, we didn't let them see it, because DH works at a university, and we didn't want them to worry about him. We also kept the news off when the person from Smart was in the news, because we didn't want them asking questions about class A drugs, etc. We vetted the newspapers too. And sadly we no longer get the NoTW so we can read all the salacious stories, because my 8 year old likes to read papers from cover to cover.

Part of the problem with our culture is surely that most of us disengage from reality. We cope by distancing ourselves rather than participating or actively trying to change things. As parents we are where this starts. We try to protect our kids (understandably), but in doing so we distance them.
I differ from say Milamae and some others as I think it's vital not to let kids be too spoon fed or protected by us. I'm probably hypocritical, as I won't tell DS about the man stabbing kids in that Belgian nursery. That's a heart stopping moment of madness that terrifies me let alone my child. Still though I am totally in favour of his knowing about the bigger world issues and he's not at all too young to have a basic understanding of them. For example, the other week we were heading to meet a friend in London and the Strand was cordoned off because of a march in support of Gaza. We went and stood and watched the crowds in Trafalger Square and I explained a bit about the conflict. Later when we got home, he got the newspaper as it had a picture on the front of a child crying amidst rubble and told his dad all about the march, the war and how good it was that people care.
What I think's interesting is that my son's a typical boy who loves guns, play fighting, etc and yet already (he's only 4) he's learning via exposure to the world that real guns aren't fun at all and hurt people, and that fighting/ wars are horrendous.
Now I can't actually see how that's a bad thing, yet a fair few of you on here are saying you'd shield your child from any such image/ event. Milamae, you say that young children don't have the skills to keep things in perspective. They do and though it's only my opinion, to deny them that, is to teach them to cut off from the world. I do agree it's a tricky line, but still I think you're maybe underestimating children in keeping reality so separate from them.

I would do exactly as you did though Smee re the march and newspapers.

We did the shoe box thing(before I found out it was a bit dodgy)and showed them the literature and what we could do to help.

Where I draw the line is television news coverage which is far closer and in your face than ever before. It's as if you're living it sometimes.

Sorry Milamae. Am glad you feel the same. I just hate the way we bundle our kids in cotton wool these days. Can't see how it prepares them for the world in any way..

I don't want to turn the news off no, and it isn't because I can't be arsed its because I like to watch it, and so does ds1 on many occassion. I don't censor it, we live in the real world and I don't think I would do him any favours by sheilding him and letting him see the world through rose tinted lenses. I have allowed him to watch the news since he was tiny. He sat with great interest and watched the soham news. he was about 4 or 5 then and yes I did explain to him what had happened..

He is now 10 and is not "damaged" in anyway due to me letting him watch it.

And yes I answer questions about drugs if they crop up...or anything else he may see and ask about.

DD knows that at 6pm the news goes on - and its the time for settling down for bed. when the news is finished its bed time

The only reason I am not keen for dcs to watch the news regularly is that I don't them to develop too strong a disengaging reaction. I don't find I myself am a more useful citizen/more caring/more engaged in world politics for having sat through 20 minutes of massacred bodies: I feel it paralyses me more than anything or makes me switch off.

What works better for me (i.e. makes me more able to do something useful) is to get the news from another medium and then sit down to think if there is anything I can do. This is also what I do with the children. They take part in our discussions of how we spend our charity money, what projects are likely to be most needed/do most good, we discuss politics, I marched against the Iraq war.

But honestly, both I and they have enough imagination to be able to understand the horrors of a massacre without having to watch it. My boy is quite capable of working out for himself that guns hurt and seems far more aware of the state of the world than many of his friends who just watch the news because they happen to be in the room. They seem to have an amazing capacity to distance themselves from suffering: I don't think it's my son who is having the cotton wool.

I agree with you in principle, LadyE but we all have to take into account our childrens' sensibilities.

I would have less problems letting my DS watch the news than my DD as she is a real worrier.

This is not a black or white issue, there are many shades of grey and it is our duty as a parent to work out which method would be best for our children.

The problem with worriers is they might either get so stressed out by the plight of the world that they can't do any good in it, or learn to disengage themselves mentally from suffering. Neither is likely to help them grow up into more caring, useful citizens.

I think we both want the same thing.

I just don't want them thinking there's a paedophile/terrorist on every corner waiting to pounce-there isn't.

When you show kids newspapers,books,literature you're doing it at their pace. When they're left in front of news24 it's at an adults pace and lets face it some news stories are seriously over sensationalized.

I guess some of it is down to the individual child,I know mine(5,5&4) just aren't ready yet to be able to process it all without spending a lot of time worrying.

I like seeing them worry free, I'd rather they worried about trivial 4 and 5 year old things and gradually started thinking about the environment,people less fortunate etc.Childhood seems so short these days.

DS is 2.7 and he has always been exposed to the news. There is always someone watching it with him though.

Totally agree Cory.

You're absolutely not wrapping them up in cotton wool Cory, because you're showing them you're engaged in the world and that you care about it. The problem is most people aren't like you. A lot of kids grow up in houses where the news might be on, but nobody talks to them about it. Or it's never on, so they haven't a clue. All that matters is to show them that it matters iyswim. We can't make children interested in the world, or feel they can change things, but we can lead by example. Though having said that, I can't remember the last thing I did along those lines...

We don't do it enough either but they do know about the world. Just because they don't watch the news regularly doesn't mean they're wrapped in cotton wool/out of touch.

We read Dr Dog the other day and had a lengthy conversation about the ills of smoking and drugs. They've seen pictures and footage of Barack Obama and had discussions about segregation etc. We discussed war and how children can end up homeless and hungry when we did the shoe box thing. We've got masses of books on the environment/recycling which they discuss endlessly.

As they get older there will be more and more we discuss and explore through various mediums.

i don't let DCs (7 and 5) anywhere near the news - it doesn't really come up to be honest as we are channel 4 fans and watch the news once they are in bed. i did watch the obama coverage with them as it was such a wonderful and historic moment!i don't feel i am being overly protective - as cory and mila say there are other ways of informing them about the world. the images on telly would horrify my very sensitive, deep, anxiety-prone DD. there is plenty of time ahead for them to learn about the tragic side of world events. we talk of conflict, war and famine but i do not want them haunted by the images.

I frequently have to turn the radio down in the car when the news comes on so that DS (9) doesn't hear it. I find it upsetting enough, he doesn't need to know about things like that at 9 yo.

Funnily enough, I mentioned earlier that my DD is sensitive and DS not, he is quite a toughy.

I picked him up from school and we talked about why he was awake crying several times last night. He told me that one of the girls in his class had mentioned that they had a burglar last year and that she had seen him go past her bedroom door. Her father was away and her mother called a neighbour who came over with a baseball bat.

My sensitive DD was not bothered by this story but my tough little DS was up half the night having nightmares.

So, I guess it is difficult to know how our children will react to things that they hear.

Its interesting that this thread should have come up tonight. DS(11) just watched the C4 news for the first time this evening, he has watched News Round and reads the papers and so this isn't his only exposure, and was really traumatised by it in particular an article on Sri Lanka. I think as others have pointed out the tv news is far more graphic than it was in the 70's and 80's
We talked about what he had seen and discussed how we might act to change things.