Radio news too graphic when children can hear

We had to turn off the news when DS was from about 7-10 when something horrible was on, as he understood a lot and had nightmares about it. There didn't seem to be any point, really, in making him miserable (and waking us up) just to broaden his education. He is still a bit of a worrier, but at his age, he can watch the news or not, as he chooses.

I find the news about the Jordanian pilot, poor soul, too much for me, and so I don't want to watch it. Doesn't mean that I don't feel heart sorry for his poor family.

Of course I didn't switch off, goldengirl I'm a grown up and it was after the watershed.

But children do hear of atrocities at school - in history lessons. The Tudors for example - tortures, beheadings, and the like. Horrid Histories is a popular TV and story series. Just because it was a long time ago doesn't mean it's any the less ghastly. What is awful is that it is still happening and no doubt such atrocities will continue to be perpetrated on our fellow men long after we've gone. What about the man in Wolf Hall last night - he was racked and then burnt; did you switch off?

I disagree Mishap

Radio 4 and other speech channels are aimed at adults - we are not children and can't be shielded from reality until the 9pm watershed.

We should not have to switch off the radio to avoid unsuitable content during the daytime. It should not be there. The BEEB needs to use discretion about what it broadcasts during the day on the assumption that small children might be able to hear it - just as with the TV watershed.

Short of leaping to the radio on the hour every hour just in case something inappropriate is being broadcast, the only answer is not to listen at all if children are likely to be around. Shooting themselves in the foot really, the BEEB.

You're right about the antennae Ariadne.

I had my GC staying in the days after Xmas - we went to Peter Jones' toy department where the next day there was a terrible incident, a young man fell/jumped from the 5th floor into the atrium.

I usually have Radio 4 on in the background in the kitchen but I'm sure this didn't make national radio news.

Two days later GD (aged 5) solemnly said "someone died in Peter Jones".

I can only think that she overheard a phone conversation or maybe I had BBC London on the radio. I would never knowingly let her be aware of what happened.

We were posted Northern Ireland in the early 1980s, and I know that my children were often worried about what might happen to us, because they obviously picked up news reports about the latest IRA attacks, especially when they blew up the local bar. But you can't protect them from everything.

My grandmother took the "News of the World" on Sundays, and I remember struggling through the reports of all sorts of cases - sexual ones where "intimacy took place" and others, quite luridly reported, about atrocities. Children have all sorts of antennae!

It's a tough one, isn't it? Personally, I wouldn't have the news on when there are small children around but we know we can't keep them protected for ever. My sensible DGS of 11 became very anxious recently about the ebola crisis and was immune to all reassurance and careful explanations. In then end, it was only when his dad said 'Don't be daft. You're not going to get it and neither are we' that his fears were assuaged.

Likewise Merlot - we were stationed in Germany in the early 60's at the height of the Cold War. Practice nuclear alerts were part of the background of my early teenage years. The siren would sound and if it didn't come back down after a set number of seconds then it was a real attack. I remember walking home from the school bus, freezing to the spot and frantically counting seconds in my head on hearing the alert. It's a terror that has never left me so I will do my utmost to protect my DGCs from unsuitable material while they are small and still believe in Santa. Time enough later.

I grew up in dangerous times. We were in Egypt in the early fifties during the overthrowing of the monarchy and then in Aden in the years leading up to the end of British rule. As children we trusted our parents to keep us safe and when something scary happened, like the burning of our local NAAFI which we used two or three times a week, we were told it was nothing to worry about.

When I was eleven a friend was taken out of class to be told his mother had been killed by a grenade that had been thrown out of a bus. The rest of us were told by a teacher. Nobody cried. It was just stuff that happened.

I can really understand a child being terrified by hearing about barbaric events on the radio or television because it's not our way of life. If my grandchildren were still small I would check on the internet before switching on the telly. They don't need to be frightened about something they won't understand.

We have the control.....literally. We can turn off tv and radio news and watch/listen at a time when small people aren't around. My DGD and I watch the more appropriate Newsround and discuss issues which arise. This is not their time to be exposed to man's inhumanity.....l.we wouldn't take them to a horror movie so why expose them to real life horror? I can't even watch news reports or read anything about that poor Jordanian pilot, I just want to run from the horror of it. My DGC would be beside themselves.

I was 8yrs old when WW2 ended and can remember screaming in terror because my Mum put on the light without closing the curtains , I had been let listen to the declaration that the war was over , on the radio . The information passed over my head because I was so used to the aeroplanes going over and being crouched under the table , so it is hard to know what makes an impression

I too can see both points of view. Many years ago the daughter of a dear friend heard on the news a bought a child being abducted from her bed. It had such a profound effect on this 8 year old that she was unable to cope with being apart from her mother and would sleep in her parents room for many years to come. The effects lasted well into her 20s and only recently has she been able to move on. An extreme result I know but it can happen.

I do think that it depends on age and the child's personality. What one child might cope with another might have nightmares over. My DGS at age 9 wept buckets night after night after seeing War Horse - he just could not handle the idea that people could be so cruel - it truly changed him substantially. He would take it better now at age 12, but it was just too soon.

My feeling is that children need to be allowed a bit of childhood before man's inhumanity to man is thrust down their throats.

I sometimes think we are far too protective of our children. An adult's job is not to conceal the horrible things in life from our children but to mediate and explain them.

As a child I always knew when something was being withheld from me because it was considered to frightening/distressing etc etc. I became very good at reading or in other ways finding out what it was as I detailed above. No matter how dreadful what I read it was better than worrying about what was being concealed.

I always told my children any bad news, let them read newspapers, hear news and then discuss the issue if it was something horrendous.

The horrors that gave me nightmares as a child and my son also was what we read in books. I read Jane Eyre when I was about 11 and the scene with the mad woman terrified me. Like wise the witches meeting in Witchwood by John Buchan. But real life, never.

Wow! some very strong opinions here, all of which are valid, as a presenter of a local community radio show: NMFM 106.6
https://www.facebook.com/nanasnatter
I find it hard to convey topical news in a manner which is befitting all ears, my remit is primarily to entertain and raise issues that need awareness, and cover what's going on in my local community, but I agree that in this era of modern technology we do not need graphic detail on a radio broadcast, if you want/need to know more then just Google it!

I am always interested in others views and if you would like to have your say then please do contact me on the above page.

As parents we choose when and how we introduce our children to life's cruelties and we need to retain that right and not have that usurped by the BBC. We cannot fully shelter them from this I know, but we know our own children and can judge when the time is right. I am not suggesting that news bulletins should be squeaky clean - heaven knows they are 100% miserable news - but the sort of detail that we heard about the burning of this man locked in a cage is really a step too far.

I am only too aware of the misery that children in other places (and some in our own country) are suffering and am very sad about that, but spreading that suffering to our own children does not add to the sum of human happiness.

They will hear all about this dreadful stuff soon enough and hopefully at a time and in a place where we can help them to deal with it. The news was blasting this level of detail out repeatedly during the day - I switched it off of course, but not before it was out there and able to settle in small ears.

Im putting another side to the discussion Jane , one which is worth considering.

We have laws and systems in place in this country to protect children from physical and sexual abuse in the home, school, and places of recreation.
What is wrong, Anya, with wanting to protect them also from hearing at a too young age about the most brutal atrocities imaginable?
It is hard enough for us as adults to process all this.
Yes, children must learn eventually about man's inhumanity to man.
But the fact that some are suffering horribly doesn't justify destroying the innocence of others at a very young age.

Sadly the children in these "war zones" cannot avoid the hideous reality of their daily lives – and look at the awful psychological damage it does to them. I don't think that means that children who live in a different country and culture need to face up to all the details of the same reality. It is possible to talk to them about the terrible things happening in the world and engage their interest, understanding and compassion without telling them, for example, that someone was put in a cage and deliberately burned to death. I have not forgotten the indescribable horror and fear I felt when I first learned about Nazi concentration camps as a result of reading newspapers during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. My family was on holiday in Wales and night after night I awoke the whole hotel with the screams and sobbing in my nightmares.

As ever, I can see both points of view over this.

Mishap,Jane, Jings et al of course you are right, but in another way, Anya makes a good point.

As with too many things, I sit on the fence to the point where I get splinters up my arse in my brain to the extent where it hurts.

The one thing that I do know for sure, is that acts of atrocity committed in the name of religion are a fucking damnable obscenity.

Sorry for the strong language, feel free to complain to HQ if you want to.

Yes, our poor little ones mustn't be subjected to these horrors must they? So what about all the children living in war zones such as Syria, seeing friends blown to pieces, stepping on land mines, living in refugee camps, or seeing their parents being slaughtered by Isis, slowly starving to death in famines or sold into sexual slavery at a tender age?

If all we have to worry about is our children hearing about this then I count myself lucky

My SIL was complaining about the graphic front pages on display after one of the Israeli horrors. He said it was very difficult to explain it to his 8 year old who wanted to know what was happening.

I think it was entirely reasonable to say that this poor man had been murdered, but that the level of detail was too graphic and should have been saved till much later in the day.

flicketyB I am beyond sorry that we can't protect all the suffering children in the world but the fact is we can't. I took mishaps post to be concerned about the graphic detail in the news item. Too much information. My post was lighthearted in comparison but that news item directly affected my grandson as it applied to what was happening to him on that day. I learned from an aunt about the Invasion of Singapore, her Fiancee died in the Far East, she could only imagine what happened to him.