How much news coverage will cause anxiety in a child?

News coverage is a difficult one to make a judgement about – we all want to know what’s happening in the world. We all want to keep an eye on developments. And we maybe don’t always realise ourselves when we’re overfeeding on a news event that makes us on edge and anxious.

But as a cause of anxiety in children, news coverage has added dimensions. 

Our children will always pick up talk in the playground, overhear adults and notice what we’re watching on TV when they’re in the room with us. 

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They can’t be kept in the dark these days. But they don’t have the thinking structures in place yet to properly understand.

So they do need us to tell them some things – and not others. We can do that as we

  • answer their questions or 
  • take an interest in how they’re responding to what they’ve seen or heard.

We should do this. Without proper information, children will fill in the gaps by imagining the rest – and they’ll often make up a version far worse than the truth.

So by talking and also guarding their news intake, we can decide how much is too much and make sure they don’t get anxious.

How to decide what news intake is right for your child?

The first thing is to look at exactly what news we’re talking about. This will give us a clue.

When we say “news coverage” these days, we usually mean national and international events that are filling television slots and newspaper front pages. Big headlines, huge images. And most of this news is not positive.

It’s pretty much events such as

  • tragedies (eg plane crashes, children having their life support terminated by a court's decision)
  • disasters (eg earthquakes, flooding)
  • disease (eg ebola, SARS, Covid-19, monkeypox)
  • terrorism (eg bomb threats, vehicles ploughing into crowds)
  • war and nuclear/chemical threats (eg Syria, Arnenia, Ukraine)
  • sexual predators (eg paedophiles, rapists)
  • violence (eg knife crime, US school shootings).

All of these instantly appear on screens, news feeds and social media when they occur. Along with misinformation, to confuse things further.

(I think it’s pretty safe to say that, apart from parroting political views heard from their parents, most under-13s are not terribly affected or made anxious by news from parliament!)

So we’re dealing with bad, shocking stories. Those that capture people’s attention.

If we can’t stop our children hearing about these things, from various sources, we need to realise exactly how news coverage feeds their anxiety. 

And then how we can manage the amount we allow them to take in – and our response to them – in the best possible way.

Two ways news coverage can feed anxiety in children

1 The amount of time spent on news coverage pushes other activities out. 

A child’s natural curiosity about something fades after a little while. They ask us a question or two, then run off and play. Then possibly return to the topic later. 

But if the news is on all day in a house, your child can’t escape so readily. 

They hear snippets while they play. They talk to you but realise you’re distracted. Maybe they look over your shoulder, watch for a while with you. 

In this way, the topic invades all the little spaces in their brain. A subtle fuelling of the message: This must be serious and worrying. What will happen to me?

And so, fewer totally separate activities occur to fully involve their attention. There’s no respite from bad stories.

2 A child’s inability to understand the background, the whys and wherefores and the nuances prevents any balancing in the brain (cognitively) until they’re older. 

Abstract thinking is needed to really consider news issues. Comparing, assessing, linking backwards and sideways as the information (and disinformation) arrives in our brains. 

But children think in a more concrete way until they’re around 12. Abstract thinking grows slowly in the years after that, and may never fully develop in some people.

So younger children are left with words and images from news coverage, many of which will invoke feelings in them but without the thought processes to manage the feelings.

Just think: 

fire, accident, crash, bomb, gun, attack, kidnap… 

These words conjure up feelings and emotions (feeling: bodily state of alert; emotion: scare/shock) in both adults and children straight away. 

But in children, the feelings have no container, and the main thought is naturally about “me” and “those I love”. Fear and anxiety are engendered without the means of containing it.

And after two years of pandemic "events", children are hearing these news items against a background of already heightened anxiety.

That’s why you need to 

  • limit what your child is hearing according to their age and understanding
  • be available to answer questions in a limited and appropriate way.

Otherwise, the levels of anxiety in the background are going to continue affecting their everyday life – home, school, relationships, trust, learning etc until we have a very unsettled group of adults in a few years' time.

Ways of dealing with anxiety about news coverage

1 Make a chart

This sounds a weird thing to be suggesting for a scary news item! And you simply must take into account whether your child is 4 or 10 years old and adapt this idea accordingly.

So – why a chart? 

When emotion is stuck inside, it engenders anxiety about what will happen next.

When emotions are put into words and can be seen for what they are, they lose some power. Become more manageable in a more detached way.

Ever seen the crime boards in the police station on TV dramas? This is going to be like one.

  • Take a large sheet of paper. Get your child to put a drawing or words in the middle of the paper. This is the topic from the news coverage.
  • Allow only for what your child has heard talked about, or seen in a limited news item. And only use a sketch your child has done. That tells you a lot about what they understand or think. No media pictures.
  • Talk about what they’re thinking or worrying about, or simply what they’ve heard.
  • Jot this down around the sides, with lines to the centre if you like. 
  • In a different colour write your own comments that are age appropriate and which answer the worry or question. Or simply add a fact they’re ignoring or misunderstanding.
  • Don’t go into it in depth now. Tell them that’s enough for now and encourage them to go off and do something else. “We can add more later if we want.”
  • You can allow facts to be added as they come to light if they serve your purpose of being clear and calming. For instance, if 70 people have now been rescued from a plane crash. This is positive: it balances things in a child’s mind.
  • When another comment or question comes up, or another anxiety, add to the board – and stop the activity again when you deem right. You’re allowing just a drip-feed of worry, interest and resolution. This avoids overwhelm.

This “crime board” – or rather information board! – is your container for their thoughts and anxieties.

But be careful, if you have two children of very different ages.

You can ask your older one privately to keep difficult questions for you until later, and explain why. 

You can then add some facts to the board if they’re still appropriate when you’ve heard the older child's query. Or rephrase them so as not to worry your younger child. You see, we parents are also a container for their anxiety. It’s important we don’t leak!

2 Plan when the news will be on – and how

By all means keep track of developing events on your phone. We all do. 

But in terms of television, decide that the news will not be turned on for every bulletin if a scary event has happened. Just a small amount, sometimes. And make sure you’re in the room and can comment and answer questions there and then.

Keep television news coverage mostly to late night when your child is in bed. Use earphones if need be (or subtitles) and ensure no young  child is up and about when they should be in bed! In other words, be careful. They will pick up quite enough from others at nursery, childcare, school or play dates.

If any of this isn’t possible, at least avoid rolling news on breakfast television. They’re filling up a certain amount of programme time and therefore always give far more detail, repetitively, with endless people’s experience of the disaster – many more than is strictly necessary for “news”.

And if they get anxious about the news before school, they will not be able to concentrate and learn.

The point of taking the trouble to limit news imbibing is for one reason only. Let me explain.

It’s to do with mirror neurons. Something in our brains can not only imitate another person’s actions but feel them in the same way. 

This phenomenon is how babies develop their social skills and learn to understand and empathise with others! 

But if we think how that applies to children watching endless news coverage about traumatic disasters and terrorist attacks, then it’s obvious we’re possibly traumatising them. 

That’s what we need to avoid – and that's why it’s important to plan, limit and organise the news coverage in your home when a significant bad event has happened.

If you’re interested to read an article by Dr Tian Dayton, Clinical Psychologist, on how mirror neurons explain emotional contagion, do have a read here.

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