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"Hi Paula: I was surprised to learn that a good friend does not allow her three kids (ages 6, 8, and 12) to watch the evening news. Says it&amp;#039;s too &amp;quot;violent, scary, and lurid.&amp;quot; Is that over protective? Seems like it&amp;#039;s important to have informed kids. How do your kids get the news? \u2013rhonda Rhonda, if only kids thought the news were as important as parents do! I&amp;#039;m all for informed young minds, but your friend probably has a point: Today&amp;#039;s evening news IS heavy on the graphic videos (earthquake victims, fires) and sensational emphasis (Tiger Woods&amp;#039;s peccadilloes, death at the Olympics). It&amp;#039;s not that I think children should be protected from every ugly reality of life, but neither does a sensational, age-inappropriate view one the world do them any favors, especially in the primary years. Nightmares, a sense of impending doom, and irrational fears can all result when little kids see things that they don&amp;#039;t fully understand (even when a parent is right there trying to interpret it for them). Do I think what they see on the news can utterly poison their brains and ruin them for life? No. BUT, TV news just isn&amp;#039;t quite the same staid, low-on-the-visuals program it was when I was a kid. My kids don&amp;#039;t watch the evening TV news at all, but not because of rules \u2014 it&amp;#039;s because I don&amp;#039;t. I prefer to get my news over NPR in the morning and by reading newspapers (both in print over breakfast, and online in between snatches of work during the day).  So how do they stay informed? They get some of their news from school lessons and magazines like Time for Kids. They pick up the day&amp;#039;s weather and the major headlines (earthquake!) over the radio at breakfast. And a lion&amp;#039;s share of it probably falls to their parents to keep them informed. I hope they&amp;#039;re learning by example to follow the news by reading a paper or a news website, and eventually will do the same on their own some day \u2014 assuming, that is, that the news business can stay in business!  \u2013Paula Spencer, WD &amp;quot;Momfidence&amp;quot; columnist "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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