Should Your Child Watch TV News? Surprising Opinions of Top Anchors

 KIDS AND THE NEWS

More than ever, children witness innumerable, sometimes traumatizing,

news events on TV. It seems that violent crime and bad news is unabating.

Foreign wars, natural disasters, terrorism, murders, incidents of child abuse,

and medical epidemics flood our newscasts daily. Not to mention the grim

wave of recent school shootings.

Newswatch AMC

All of this intrudes on the innocent world of children. If, as psychologists

say, kids are like sponges and absorb everything that goes on around them,

how profoundly does watching TV news actually affect them? How careful do

parents need to be in monitoring the flow of news into the home, and how can

they find an approach that works?

To answer these questions, we turned to a panel of seasoned anchors, Peter

Jennings, Maria Shriver, Linda Ellerbee, and Jane Pauley--each having faced the

complexities of raising their own vulnerable children in a news-saturated

world.

Picture this: 6:30 p.m. After an exhausting day at the office, Mom is busy

making dinner. She parks her 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in front

of the TV.

"Play Nintendo until dinner's ready," she instructs the little ones, who,

instead, start flipping channels.

Tom Brokaw on "NBC News Tonight," announces that an Atlanta gunman

has killed his wife, daughter and son, all three with a hammer, before going on

a shooting rampage that leaves nine dead.

On "World News Tonight," Peter Jennings reports that a jumbo jetliner with

more than 300 passengers crashed in a spinning metal fireball at a Hong Kong

airport.

On CNN, there's a report about the earthquake in Turkey, with 2,000

people killed.

On the Discovery channel, there's a timely special on hurricanes and the

terror they create in children. Hurricane Dennis has already struck, Floyd is

coming.

Finally, they see a local news report about a roller coaster accident at a New

Jersey amusement park that kills a mother and her eight-year-old daughter.

Nintendo was never this riveting.

"Dinner's ready!" shouts Mom, unaware that her children may be terrified

by this menacing potpourri of TV news.

What's wrong with this picture?

"There's a LOT wrong with it, but it's not that easily fixable," notes Linda

Ellerbee, the creator and host of "Nick News," the award-winning news

program geared for kids ages 8-13, airing on Nickelodeon.

"Watching blood and gore on TV is NOT good for kids and it doesn't do

much to enhance the lives of adults either," says the anchor, who strives to

inform children about world events without terrorizing them. "We're into

stretching kids' brains and there's nothing we wouldn't cover," including

recent programs on euthanasia, the Kosovo crisis, prayer in schools, book-

banning, the death penalty, and Sudan slaves.

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