No matter what their age, it’s hard for children not to see or hear some of the (mostly bad) news we’re constantly bombarded with.
And when stories about topics such as war, climate and crime dominate the headlines, many children – and not just the younger ones – can become really scared.
A new survey by Picture News, which works with schools in the UK to help pupils engage with current affairs, has found more than half of parents (52%) worry about how to explain difficult news stories to their children, and 69% are concerned younger children are accessing news content on social media through older siblings.
But although it’s virtually impossible for parents to protect their kids from being exposed to stories that might upset them, there are ways to help prevent them becoming really frightened by news stories, or misled by fake news, say the experts.
Children’s media literacy expert Katie Harrison, a former primary school teacher and co-founder of Picture News, says: “It’s very difficult now to completely monitor everything children are being exposed to.
“So it’s about developing skills for children and parents. We try and encourage an open culture, and if children have questions or if they’ve seen something in the news that’s upset them, they feel comfortable about saying it. That starts from parents having really open conversations about what children know about.”
And Professor Vivian Hill, an educational psychologist at the UCL Institute of Education, and a British Psychological Society member, stresses: “The news is so much part of our world now that you can’t protect children from it, you can’t remove it from their experience.
“Even if you try to monitor what information they’re getting, no matter how careful you are as a parent, there’ll be another child at school who’s being allowed to have access to information you wouldn’t allow your child to access, so there isn’t the possibility of completely blanking that out. In which case, then you need to have conversations with them about it.”
Here’s the experts’ advice on how to navigate those conversations…
Have age-appropriate talks
Instead of waiting for children to mention something they’ve seen on the news that may concern them, Hill says parents should make sure there are frequent, age-appropriate family discussions about current affairs.
“Get into the habit as a family of having conversations about the news,” she advises. “Obviously the level and depth of that conversation is going to be determined by the age and the ability of your child, and parents are the experts on what their child can cope with, and how much detail to go into.
“If you know they’re coming across information about, say, war or very unpleasant crimes, then you need to have conversations with them. It’s often just about reassuring them that some of these events are very rare, they’re not a threat to them in the future, and helping them understand that not everybody is going to be acting in a way that’s kind or gentle to other people.”
She suggests possibly starting such conversations over dinner, or while watching TV. “If something comes up,” she says, “just ask have they heard about it, and if they say yes, that’s your opportunity to ask what they’ve heard, and how does it make them feel? Just explore what the issues are for them, because you don’t want to start opening up really difficult and challenging conversations needlessly.”
Reassure them
Children will quite often look to parents for reassurance about a story, especially if it is something in the news, particularly a shocking local incident. Harrison suggests: “Say some simple facts around it – this is what’s happened, and this is very, very unusual, it hasn’t happened for 20 years or whatever.
“And then simply explain the context, or why it happened, just to give them a bit of perspective on the issue so they’re not really worried that every time they go outside, something similar is going to happen.”
And Hill adds: “Just gently explore what they’ve heard – often children do need some degree of reassurance.
“It’s an opportunity to start in a very developmentally appropriate way, just giving them enough information to make a judgement, but also enough to reassure them about their own personal safety.”
Teach them to be critical thinkers
The Picture News survey found 88% of parents are worried about children being exposed to fake news and misinformation, and Hill suggests the way to combat this is to encourage children to find out the facts of a story themselves – perhaps initially by doing internet searches together to look at different views of the topic.
“That’s teaching them a life skill for the future,” she points out.
“It’s making them think what’s the reality behind some of these alarmist headlines. You’re teaching them to have a critical approach, and to not just accept things at face value. It’s turning it into a learning opportunity.”
Harrison adds: “Encourage children to think about what they’ve heard or read, to do their own research and find credible sources, and ask if it’s definitely true. Being aware of where to look for credible news is really important.”
Be aware of the type of stories that may scare children
Harrison says a lot of young children are worried by news stories about war. “Anything to do with war, wherever it is, it’s quite upsetting for them,” she says.
“Younger children don’t necessarily have the awareness of location, so if they see or hear something’s happening, it’s hard for them to understand it’s not going to happen to them in their life and it’s occurring further away.”
She says older children are often also concerned about war and conflict, and anything to do with crime.
“Knife crime is particularly worrying, especially for children and young people in towns and cities, and anything to do with violent crimes.”
Give age-appropriate explanations when possible
The reasons behind the current wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are hugely complicated and often hard to understand, even for adults, so Harrison advises parents to simplify conflicts as much as possible and bring what’s happening down to a young child’s level.
“It’s about making it age-appropriate,” she says. “So for very young children it’s essentially comparing it to something they understand – they might fall out with some of their friends because they disagree on certain things, and that’s the same on a much bigger level with countries, and sometimes it’s not solved in a positive way, and there’s consequences.”
It can also be worthwhile, she says, to look at a conflict from the perspective of a child who’s living there, which can be researched together, and to try to draw something positive from a story, for example, the work a charity’s doing during a conflict.
“If you’re talking about a news story that children have a fear of already, also looking at something else to do with that story from a more positive angle can ease their worries a little bit,” she explains.
