Helping Children Frightened by California Wildfires

The horrific images of the California wildfires are no doubt frightening many young children who happen to be in the room when their caregivers are watching television. Kids are often frightened by vivid visual images of threats in the news -- even if they don't seem to normally pay attention to the news. This is a problem that has repeatedly occurred whenever a vivid natural disaster has been covered in the news. I have posted advice on my web site to help families cope in similar situations. If this is a problem in your home, I recommend that you check out the advice I gave on coping with responses to Hurricane Katrina. If you have any questions on this topic, please post it as a comment.

Can you believe it? Using Halo3 to lure kids to church?

A story on the front page of today's New York Times entitled "Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game," describes the fact that many pastors around the country are so desperate to attract teens to their churches that they are sponsoring events in which children sit around in groups playing the popular violent video game, Halo. The latest version, Halo 3, has exceeded $300 million in sales in just two weeks. The game is rated M, for mature audiences, which means you have to be 17 to buy it. And yet, young teenagers are participating in these sessions, which are often followed by a lesson involving church teachings. There has been some criticism of these policies, but many pastors seem to argue that children know that it's only pixels they are shooting, so they're confident that the trade-off is worth it.

Well, there's a great deal of research on the harmful effects of violent video games. Here's a link to Professor Craig Anderson's web site, where he discusses many of these findings and their implications. And the web site of the Center for Successful Parenting talks about the impact of playing violent video games on brain activity and has an archive of research on media violence. In addition, research on the effects of prosocial communication documents that trying to undo the strong audiovisual and interactive media messages of violence by giving verbal explanations after the fact is woefully inadequate. What these children are coming to church to learn is that violence is a great solution to conflict, that it's easy, exhilarating and risk free, and that the church endorses it! What are church leaders thinking? Isn't there any other way to attract kids? And if not, are they creating more problems than they know?

The News Frenzy About Missing Women

A few days ago, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Wisconsin State Journal who was writing an article about the news coverage of yet another missing woman in our area. It turns out that, like another missing woman recently, this one left suddenly of her own accord because she was feeling stress, and she was later found unharmed. Unfortunately, earlier this year, there was also a tragic local story about a missing woman whose body was found in a county park and whose murderer is apparently still on the loose. The question the reporter asked me was, "how should the news handle these stories, without freaking children out who may be in the vicinity of a television set?" My answer was that news programs are in a difficult position. If a person is missing and foul play is suspected, new programs are doing a public service by notifying the community to look for her. My advice was that a news program could perform that service by matter-of-factly announcing that police were looking for a woman (perhaps with her picture), who was last seen in a particular type of car in a particular location, etc. This would not make a "compelling" news story, however. The purpose of television news is not simply to provide useful information; it's to bring in as many viewers as possible so that stations can charge high fees to their advertisers. Because of this, news programs usually don't stop with the facts about who's missing and from where. They often speculate about the kind of ill fate that might have befallen her; they often talk about the dreaded outcomes that have occurred in similar situations; and they sometimes even interview distraught friends and family members. These are the things that upset children greatly. As long as the purpose of TV news is to make money, news channels are not likely to limit these stories to providing necessary information. This makes children the secondary victims of these events (even if everything turns out OK for the missing woman). Many children will be left with residual anxieties and sleep problems. So it is all the more necessary for parents to avoid watching the news when children are present.

What do you think? Should television stations avoid emotionalizing these missing woman stories? Should they care more about their impact on children or their advertising revenues?