All the news that's fit to watch with your kids

Keeping vigil when it comes to monitoring (and hopefully managing) your child's TV-watching is turning into a 24/7 endeavor: there's primetime, daytime and in-between-time (it's impossible to ignore the impact of commercial adverts). And let us not forget the news. Whether intentional or not, your children are exposed to media coverage of world events – often gut-wrenching, traumatic images – each time the tube is flicked on. Short bytes of news updates occur on the hour smack in the middle of regular family programming. Little Mikey channel-hops in search of "Blue's Clues" and suddenly is staring at collapsing skyscrapers and bombed-out army vehicles in the Middle East. And then there are the all-news channels (Newsworld, CNN…) whose 20-second clips jolt the most seasoned viewer. And children's reactions — their ability to process what they see on the news — are just as varied as their personality make-ups, upbringing, home life and their ages, whether they're in senior kindergarten or in junior high.

"Certain kids will be more vulnerable, including those who are worriers and generally anxious, or children who have suffered any serious trauma…or who have a vivid imagination," said Dr. Arlette Lefebvre on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 World Trade Centre catastrophe. Lefebvre is a staff psychiatrist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children who works with the Media Awareness Network (MNet), a Canadian non-profit organization (with representatives from TV networks and educational groups) that has busied itself with the matter of media and its effects on children since 1996.

The 9/11 tragedy crystallized many professional and parental concerns about children's response to news coverage. Suddenly, instead of debating the allegedly violent aspects of "South Park," parents were struggling with how to manage their kids' news-watching. "With very young children this may mean shielding them from exposure to as much of the coverage as possible," said Jan D'Arcy, Mnet's executive director, "while with teens we'd recommend taking a very proactive approach by using the media with them and helping them to think critically about what they see, hear and read. Helping them now to understand how the media work and the media's role to inform is an enormous gift that will be invaluable to them throughout their lives."

Both D'Arcy and Lefebrve advise a three-pronged approach:
(a) monitor media exposure (know what news your children are watching);
(b) mediate media images and messages (help your kids process and understand what they've seen); and
(c) mitigate the media's impact (understand your child's reaction and work with them).