Do you let your kids watch the news?

[Mandabplus3]

I was just reading the app pot and Lori ( thankyou,) posted about an app called news 0 matic. The app sends current word news to you in child friendly format. It sounds pretty good to me but...
I haven't let my kids watch the news before. I don't think it is approriate. It is always depressing, violent and early contains goodness. So as a family we just avoid it. I never watch the news and only occasionally read a paper.
My kids are older now. (10,8 and 6! I know already!!!)  and I am thinking it might be time they had some exposure to real world events.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Is it even valuable to children to hear about these events? Do your kids watch the news?  How do you protect them from the violence? Can I just shelter then for a few more years? Should I? What do you all think?

[Krista G]

Mandy - I am the same. I don't watch the news because it is sad and depressing.  Why should we rob the joy of childhood from our children and get them concerned about world events?  If important stories come up we share them as a family, but I don't encourage them to do this on their own.  If you do introduce them to world events perhaps balance it with a hefty dose of good news.  The last thing I want to raise is worriers.  This is a good topic.  Any one else have any ideas?

[mario]

I also don't watch the news. And I also don't like my son to watch it but when there are guests at home or we are in the house of someone else we can't avoid. I also find it depressive. I read the news that are interesting to me but honestly I don't mind about most news about crime and accidents, because they happen all the time and unless it is something that will really prevent something bad from happening, I don't think that the daily disaster is a knowledge to acquire.
The other day my son was impressed with a crashed truck so I saw how it can be important to a young mind.

[Skylark]

We talk about the news that are very important. For example when N Mandela passed away we talked about his life and the difference he made. When Olympic games start we talk about it,, what are Olympic Games, when did they start, what country they are taking place. That way while the kids are still informed about the s people around will be talking about, the information they get is valuable and of importance, something they can benefit fromi.

Before the kids came along we made a decision to not own a TV, so there are no news or shows running on the background in our house, and we are very very happy about the quality of our every day life based on that.

On the other hand we also started "This Day in History" activity. We do not do it every day, even though we can and probably will when the kids will get older. But on the days when we do it, we talk about this day in history, important people born on this day, important events that took place, some fun trivia even. It is like the news but way better and it opens so many fun interesting discussions with gazillions of learning moments 

[akalori]

We listen to NPR in the car and it tends to be less sensational.  I don't like to watch the regular news channels on tv because it is depressing, sensational, and gives a skewed view of the world as violent and dangerous. Even with NPR we do have to turn it off in mid sentence sporadically.  But usually NPR does a lot of coverage regarding the politics and reasons for conflicts without emphasis on carnage.  Often it's okay for my kids to hear.  It gives them some awareness that there are conflicts but concerned people and governments are trying to apply pressure to defuse and stabilize the situation. However my daughter (age 6) is too young to be interested.  I think she daydreams when we listen to Talk Radio.  On the other hand, my son (age 11 ) is addicted.  He sometimes stays in the car once we reach our destination to finish listening to NPR.  His favorites programs are "All Things Considered" which covers a lot of world news and global issues, and "Radio Lab"  which covers a lot of interesting and quirky science, and of course "Car Talk."

Update on News-O-Matic:  The thrill is already gone.  Originally they were fighting over it because it doesn't work on first generation iPads so they had to share it on the one newer iPad.  Now no one seems to be reading it at all.    I paid for a 1 year subscription but I already canceled the automatic renewal.  News-O-Matic is a great idea in theory but my kids aren't taking the bait. We have it for a year so maybe they will take to it again in the future.  In the meanwhile, I may try stimulating their interest by reading and mentioning the articles.  My own form of advertising. 

Lori

[Mandabplus3]

Thanks for your IMPUT everyone. I grew up hating listening to the news. The little tune at the beginning just made me. Cranky....and still sets my moods off. Funny h ow my brain made a. Connection to the violence and the tune.
I think I am safe raising news ignorant children for a while longer. I think their time is better spend in learning history's than in current events. Since the current events  are shortly irrelevant and the history stays more important and relevant for longer.  We will spend our time on history instead.

[kreena]

I follow this formula :  There are two world we live in. One our close world : oneself, family, relatives and friends. Live in the closed world and try to make it beautiful.

Other is external world, be aware of it. We watch news some times (weekly) and I read news to my kids (5 yrs old). But along with the news
I also try to help them to interpret them and ask them not to react immediately. What we should be aware of our external world
but that should not affect our living closed world.

And as Krista G said balance it with a hefty dose of good news...

HTH

Thanks for bringing this imp topic

[nehasharma5]

Thanks for share this post with us.

[Mum]

I am also very grateful to all of the contributors of this post as I have been tossing this question around in my head for a few years. I am torn between knowing that my 10 year old is missing out on some important matters and not wishing her to be exposed to much of the dreadfulness in our world.

My children have very minimal TV viewing, around 30 to 60 minutes a week on average, and I am actually surprised that they never ask to watch the programs that they sometimes tell me their friends watch. However, during the Christmas holidays I thought it was time to try and watch a little more TV by sitting together to watch and discuss the news with them. On night one my 10 year old daughter and I successfully sat through the whole program while my 7 year old son was upset with a few of the stories and escaped to his room repeatedly. On the following night my son and I were in tears for two of the main stories   , so I turned the TV off within five minutes and we have not watched the nightly news since, even though I feel that my daughter is probably resilient enough to watch the nightly news occasionally.

For now she is keen and happy   to watch a weekly child focused news program called Behind the News (http://www.abc.net.au/btn/index.htm). One of today’s stories titled Hope Street (http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4243734.htm) resulted in a valuable and interesting discussion which included internet safety. Some of the stories would be of most interest to Australian students, but there are topics that are not country specific, like today's Leap Second (http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4243702.htm).

Perhaps other forum members know of similar child friendly news programs.

Good night   from Australia and thank you again for sharing your thoughts on this topic.

Mum.

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