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

children AND THE news

extra than ever, youngsters witness innumerable, once in a while traumatizing,
news events on tv. it seems that violent crime and horrific information is unabating.
foreign wars, herbal disasters, terrorism, murders, incidents of infant abuse,
and clinical epidemics flood our newscasts every day. no longer to say the grim
wave of latest college shootings.

All of this intrudes at the innocent international of kids. If, as psychologists
say, youngsters are like sponges and take in the whole lot that goes on around them,
how profoundly does watching tv news in reality have an effect on them? How cautious do
dad and mom want to be in tracking the glide of information into the house, and the way can
they find an technique that works?

to reply those questions, we became to a panel of pro anchors, Peter
Jennings, Maria Shriver, Linda Ellerbee, and Jane Pauley--each having confronted the
complexities of raising their own prone youngsters in a news-saturated
global.

image this: 6:30 p.m. After an hard day at the office, mom is busy
making dinner. She parks her 9-yr-old daughter and 5-12 months-antique son in the front
of the tv.

"Play Nintendo until dinner's ready," she instructs the children, who,
as an alternative, begin flipping channels.

Tom Brokaw on "NBC news tonight," proclaims that an Atlanta gunman
has killed his wife, daughter and son, all three with a hammer, earlier than taking place
a shooting rampage that leaves nine dead.

On "global news tonight," Peter Jennings reports that a jumbo jetliner with
extra than 300 passengers crashed in a spinning steel fireball at a Hong Kong
airport.

On CNN, there may be a document approximately the earthquake in Turkey, with 2,000
humans killed.

at the Discovery channel, there is a timely unique on hurricanes and the
terror they create in children. storm Dennis has already struck, Floyd is
coming.

sooner or later, they see a local information document about a curler coaster twist of fate at a new
Jersey amusement park that kills a mother and her eight-yr-vintage daughter.

Nintendo become in no way this riveting.

"Dinner's ready!" shouts mother, unaware that her youngsters can be terrified
by this menacing potpourri of tv information.

what is incorrect with this image?

"there may be loads incorrect with it, however it's no longer that effortlessly fixable," notes Linda
Ellerbee, the creator and host of "Nick news," the award-winning news
program geared for children a while 8-13, airing on Nickelodeon.

"watching blood and gore on television isn't always appropriate for kids and it does not do
tons to beautify the lives of adults both," says the anchor, who strives to
tell kids about world activities without terrorizing them. "we are into
stretching kids' brains and there is nothing we would not cowl," along with
latest programs on euthanasia, the Kosovo disaster, prayer in faculties, e-book-
banning, the death penalty, and Sudan slaves.

but Ellerbee emphasizes the need of parental supervision, defensive
kids from unfounded fears. "for the duration of the Oklahoma city bombing, there
have been terrible photographs of youngsters being hurt and killed," Ellerbee recalls. "kids
wanted to recognise if they were secure in their beds. In research carried out by way of
Nickelodeon, we located out that kids locate the news the maximum horrifying element
on tv.

"whether it is the Gulf struggle, the Clinton scandal, a downed jetliner, or what
happened in Littleton, you have to reassure your kids, over and over once more,
that they're going to be ok--that the purpose this story is news is that IT
almost never takes place. information is the exception...no one is going on the air
fortunately and reports how many planes landed competently!

"My process is to put the facts into an age-appropriate context and lower
anxieties. Then it's without a doubt up to the parents to monitor what their children watch
and discuss it with them"

but a new have a look at of the position of media in the lives of kids carried out by means of
the Henry J. Kaiser family basis exhibits that ninety five% of the country's youngsters
a while eight-18 are watching television with out their mother and father present.

How does Ellerbee view the everyday situation of the harried mom above?

"mother's taking a beating right here. where's Dad?" Ellerbee asks.possibly at paintings,
or living one at a time from mom, or absent altogether.

"proper. most dad and mom are running as difficult as they are able to because we
stay in a society in which one income just would not cut it anymore,"

NBC news correspondent Maria Shriver, the mother of 4--Katherine,
13, Christina, 12, Patrick, 10, and Christopher, 6--concurs with Ellerbee: "however
mothers
are not the use of the tv as a babysitter because they're out getting manicures!"
says the forty eight-12 months-antique anchor.

"those moms are suffering to make ends meet and they do it because
they need help. I do not suppose children would be looking [as much TV] if their
mother and father were domestic organizing a touch soccer recreation.

"when I need the tv as a babysitter," says Shriver, who leaves distinctive tv-
viewing instructions behind while travelling, "I placed on a secure video. I do not mind
that my children have watched "quite woman" or "My first-rate friend's wedding ceremony"
3,000 instances. i'd be greater anxious if they watched an hour of nearby news.That
might scare them. they might sense: 'Oh, my God, is somebody going to come
in and shoot me in my bedroom?'"

In a circulate to oversee her very own kids greater carefully seeing that her husband,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, have become Governor, Shriver
scaled again her workload as Contributing Anchor to Dateline NBC and set up
her workplace at domestic: "you could never be vigilant sufficient together with your kids," she
says, "due to the fact watching violence on tv in reality has a huge effect on
kids--whether it's tv news, movies, or cartoons."

This view is shared through the yank Academy of toddler and Adolescent
Psychiatry, which states: ""television is a powerful impact in developing cost
systems and shaping behavior...research discover that kids may additionally come to be immune
to the horror of violence; regularly accept violence as a manner to resolve problems;
and lodge to anti-social and aggressive conduct, imitating the violence they
look at."

even though there are no guidelines approximately watching television in 49% of the state's
households, tv-looking on the Schwarzenegger domestic is nearly absolutely
verboten:

"we've got a blanket rule that my youngsters do not watch any television at all all through the
week," she notes, "and having a television of their bedrooms has in no way been an
alternative. i have sufficient hassle getting them to do their homework!" she states
with a laugh. "Plus the 1/2 hour of reading they have to do each night.

in step with the Kaiser survey, Shriver's family is a glaring exception to
the rule. "Many youngsters have their personal television's, VCR's and video video games of their
bedroom," the examine notes. furthermore, youngsters a long time eight-18 actually spend an
common of three hours and 16 minutes looking tv day by day; only 44 minutes
reading; 31 minutes the use of the laptop; 27 minutes gambling video video games;
and an insignificant thirteen mins the usage of the internet.

"My kids," Shriver explains, "get domestic at four p.m., have a 20-minute damage,
then pass proper into homework or after-school sports activities. Then, i am a big believer in
having own family meal time. a number of my fondest recollections are of sitting on the
dinner desk and paying attention to my dad and mom, four brothers, and my grandmother,
Rose. We did not watch the news.

"After dinner in recent times, we play a sport, then my kids are in bed, analyzing
their books. there may be no time in that day for any tv, except on weekends, when
they're allowed to watch a Disney video, Sesame avenue, Barney, The Brady
Bunch, or Pokemon."

beyond secure amusement, Shriver has removed entirely the option of her
kids looking news activities unfolding stay on television: "My children," she notes, "do
not watch any television news, other than Nick information," as an alternative presenting her youngsters
with Time for children, [Teen Newsweek is also available], Highlights, and
newspaper clippings mentioned over dinner.

"No situation need to be off-limits," Shriver concludes, "but you have to clear out
the news on your kids."

ABC's Peter Jennings, who reigns over "world news tonight," the country's
most-watched nighttime newscast, emphatically disagrees with a censored
technique to information-looking: "i have two children--Elizabeth is now 24 and
Christopher is 21-- and that they were allowed to observe as tons television news and
facts each time they desired," says the anchor. A firm believer in
children understanding the world round them, he adapted his bestselling e-book,
The Century, for youngsters a long time 10 and older within the Century for younger people.

No disadvantage to youngsters looking information? "I do not know of any downside and i've
thought approximately it regularly. I used to fear about my children' publicity to
violence and overt sex within the films. Like maximum mother and father, i discovered that although
they were uncovered to violence sooner than i might have preferred, I do not sense
they've been suffering from it. The jury's still out on the intercourse.

"i've uncovered my children to the violence of the arena--to the bestiality of
man--from the very beginning, at age 6 or 7. I didn't try to hide it. I by no means
worried about putting a curtain between them and truth, due to the fact I in no way felt
my kids might be broken by means of being exposed to violence in the event that they
understood the context wherein it came about. i'd talk to my youngsters approximately the
vulnerability of kids in wartime--the truth that they're innocent pawns--
and about what we may want to do as a own family to make the world a more peaceful
vicinity.

Jennings firmly believes that coddling youngsters is a mistake: "i have by no means
talked down to my youngsters, or to children length. I continually talk as much as them and
my newscast is suitable for youngsters of any age."

yet the 65-yr-antique anchor regularly gets letters from irate mother and father: "they'll
say: 'How dare you positioned that on at 6:30 while my kids are watching?' My
answer is: 'Madam, it's not my hassle. it's YOUR problem. it's
truely up to the figure to monitor the go with the flow of news into the home."

part of directing this flow is turning it off altogether at meal-time, says
Jennings, who believes own family dinners are sacrosanct. he is appalled that the
television is turned on at some point of meals in 58% of the country's families, this in accordance
to the Kaiser study.

"looking television all through dinner is unforgivable," he exclaims, explaining that
he constantly insisted that his own family wait until he arrived home from anchoring
the news. "you're darn proper they waited...even if my youngsters have been tiny, they
never ate until 7:30 or 8 pm. Then we might sit with no tune, no tv. Why
waste this kind of golden opportunity? watching television at mealtime robs the family of
the essence of the dinner, that is communion and change of ideas. I suggest,
God, if the dinner table is something, it is a place to learn manners and
appreciation for two of the greatest things in lifestyles--food and drink."

Jennings is also unequivocal in his view of junk television and believes parking
children on the tube creates dull minds: "I think using television as a babysitter is a
terrible idea due to the fact the rattling tv could be very narcotic, drug-like. senseless
television makes for passive human beings--and it's a distraction from homework!

"My  youngsters had been allowed to look at most effective a half of an hour of leisure
television in line with night time--and they by no means had television's in their bedrooms.it is a conscious
desire I made as a determine no longer to tempt them...too seductive..."

provides Ellerbee: "television is seductive and is supposed to be. The difficult, clean truth is
that after kids are looking tv, they're no longer doing whatever else!"

indeed, according to the national Institute on Out-of-school Time and the
office of studies training client guide, tv plays a larger role in
kid's lives now than ever before. kids watch television a median of14 to 22
hours in keeping with week, which debts for at least 25 percent of their loose time.

"Dateline NBC" Anchor Jane Pauley, intensely personal, declined an interview
to discuss how she and her husband, cartoonist Garry Trudeau ("Doonesbury")
handle tv-looking with their three teens, two of whom are fraternal twins.
but in a written response, she agreed that youngsters need to be higher included
from the onslaught of violence: "i was a visitor at a public primary college
no longer lengthy in the past, and changed into invited to peek in on a fourth-grade class on 'modern-day
events.' The assignment have been to look at the news and write about certainly one of
the testimonies.  kids picked the fatal attack on a infant by way of a pit bull and the
other wrote about a toddler who'd hanged herself with a belt! that they had all watched
the worst blood and gore 'news at eleven' station in town. The instructor gave no
hint that she was as appalled as i was. My response turned into to help the college get
subscriptions to "Time for kids" and "My Weekly Reader." humans want to be
higher news clients. And tabloid television could be very bad for kids."

on this factor, Ellerbee without problems concurs:"I simply do consider the primary
amendment STOPS at your front door. you're the boss at home and parents
have every proper to screen what their kids watch. what's even higher is
watching with them and beginning conversations about what they see.if your
child is watching something terribly violent, take a seat down and DEFUSE it. speakme
makes the ghosts run...and youngsters can break thru their scared emotions."

provides Pauly:

"youngsters," she continues, "realize approximately horrific information--they may be the ones trying to
spare us the horrific information on occasion. but youngsters have to be capable of see that their
mother and father are both human sufficient to be deeply suffering from a tragedy like
Columbine, but also strong sufficient to get through it...and on with existence. this is
the underpinning of their protection."

"i am no expert on the state's youngsters," provides Jennings, " however i might have to mention
no, it wasn't annoying. Troubling, shocking, even devastating to a few,
difficult to others, but traumatizing in that excellent feel, no.

"could I explain to my kids that there are younger, disillusioned, irritated, depressed
children inside the world? yes. I pay attention the most horrendous memories approximately what is going on
on in excessive colleges from my children. And because of the shootings, mother and father are
now on side--pressuring educators to 'do some thing.' They need to be
reminded that the great majority of all colleges in the us are overwhelmingly
secure," a truth borne out with the aid of The national school safety center, which reports that
in l998 there had been simply 25 violent deaths in colleges as compared to a mean of
50 inside the early ninety's.

Ellerbee provides that a determine's capability to pay attention is greater vital than
lobbying school principals for more steel detectors and armed guards: "If
there has been ever a case in which grown-united stateswere not being attentive to children, it was
Littleton. First, do not interrupt your child...allow them to get the entire idea out.
subsequent, if you take a seat silently for multiple seconds after they are finished, they'll
start talking once more, attending to a second level of honesty. 1/3, attempt to be honest
with your kid. To very small youngsters, it's proper to say: 'this is never going to
happen to you...' but you do not say that to a 10-year-old."

furthermore, Ellerbee believes that media literacy starts the day dad and mom forestall
pretending that if you ignore television, it'll leave. "allow your youngster know from the
very starting that he or she is SMARTER than television: 'i'm on top of things of this box,
it is not in control of me. i'm able to use this container as a beneficial, powerful device, but will
now not be utilized by it.' kids know the difference.

"looking tv," Ellerbee continues, "can makes youngsters greater civilized. I grew
up inside the south of Texas in a circle of relatives of bigoted humans. looking television made me
query my family's ideals inside the natural inferiority of people of shade.
For me, television changed into a real window that broadened my world."

ironically, for Shriver, watching tv news is incredibly painful while the
broadcast is ready you. Being a Kennedy, Shriver has lived a life-time inside the
glare of rumors and
televised hypothesis about her circle of relatives. providing the information to her kids
has therefore protected explaining the tragedies and controversies the
Kennedys have endured. She changed into simply eight years antique while her uncle, President
John F. Kennedy, turned into assassinated: "I grew up in a totally large shadow...and that i
couldn't avoid it," she admits. "It wasn't a choker, however it turned into a huge
duty that I do not need my personal children to feel." but would not her 15-
yr marriage to megastar Schwarzenegger add but any other layer of public
curiosity near domestic? "My children aren't watching leisure this night--no,
no, by no means! and that i don't convey them to movie openings or Planet Hollywood. I
assume it's nice for them to be pleased with their father, but no longer display off about him."

How does she emotionally handle information when her circle of relatives's in it? "that's a line
i have been walking in view that my personal youth, and it is sincerely effected the kind
of reporter i've turn out to be. it is made me much less competitive. i'm not [in the news
business] to glorify myself at a person else's fee, but rather to document a
tale with out destroying someone inside the manner. A manufacturer may say: 'name
this character who's in a disastrous state of affairs and book them right way.' And i'm
like: 'Ahhhh. I cannot even convey myself to do it,' because i've been on the
other side and recognise the family is in such ache."

a few years in the past, of route, the Kennedys experienced profound ache, yet
once more, when Shriver's loved cousin, John F. Kennedy, Jr., turned into killed in a plane
crash, together with his spouse, Carolyn, and sister-in-regulation, Lauren Bessette. A snow fall of
news insurance ensued, unremitting for weeks. "I failed to watch any of it...i was
busy, " Shriver says quietly. "And my children did not watch any of it both."

Shriver changed into, but, relatively organized to speak about the tragedy together with her
children. She is the writer of the nice-promoting "what's Heaven?" [Golden Books],
a ebook geared for children ages four-eight, which explains dying and the loss of a
cherished one. "My kids knew John properly because he spent Christmases with us. I
defined what came about to John as the news unfolded...walked them thru
it as exceptional I should. I reminded them that Mommy wrote the e book and stated:
'we are not going to see John anymore. He has long past to God...to heaven...and we
have to pray for him and for his sister [Caroline] and her youngsters."

Like Shriver, Jennings is for my part uncomfortable within the role of protecting
personal tragedies in a public forum: "In my shop, i'm appeared as one of these
folks that drags their feet a lot at the belief of covering those things," he
explains. "at some point of the O.J. Simpson trial, I determined no longer to head loopy in our
insurance--and we took quite a smack and dropped from first to 2d inside the
rankings. television is a enterprise, so while a actual corker of a story like Princess Diana's
demise comes along, we cover it. I think we are afraid now not to do it. we are responsible of
overkill, and with Diana, we ended up celebrating some thing that become in large part
ephemeral, making Diana more than she was. however audiences soar up!

"i was definitely opposed to protecting John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s funeral, because I
saw no need to do it. He wasn't a public discern, though others would say i used to be
wrong. On-air, I said: 'I do not think the younger Mr. Kennedy might approve of
all this excess...' however we did three hours at the funeral and it grew to become out to be
a exceptional long records lesson about American politics and the Kennedy
dynasty's place in our national life.

"occasionally," Jennings muses, "television is sort of a chapel wherein we, as a state,
can acquire to have a communal enjoy of loss.We did it with the
Challenger, greater these days with JFK Jr.'s loss of life and we can do it shortly, I
suspect, though i'm hoping no longer, with Ronald Reagan. it is no longer an awful lot special than
what people did when they went West in included wagons within the ultimate century.
whilst tragedy struck, they gathered the wagons around, lit the fire, and talked
approximately their losses of the day. and then went on. tv may be very
comforting."

In remaining, Ellerbee contends which you can't blame tv information manufacturers for
the human urge for food for sensational information insurance that often drags on for days
at a time:

"As a reporter," she muses, "i have by no means been to a struggle, visitors twist of fate, or
homicide site that failed to draw a crowd. there is a bit trash in all people. but the
same those who prevent to gawk at a traffic twist of fate, may additionally climb down a nicely
to store a infant's lifestyles, or cry at a sundown, or grin and tap their feet when the
parade is going via.

"We aren't just one factor. children can understand these grays...simply as
there is more than one answer to a query, there's without a doubt more than one
element to you!"

Bestselling writer GLENN PLASKIN is one of the state's main psychology journalists and celeb interviewers. His distinctiveness these days is interviewing the nation's pinnacle professionals in spirituality, motivation, happiness, and self- development.