MANILA, Philippines — When the 9-11 attacks in New York were continually being shown on television, many American parents took broadcasters to task for constantly exposing child viewers to the horror.

Repeatedly replaying the images — from the crashing of the aircraft into the Twin Towers and the crumbling of the building to the resultant scenes of confusion and death — were known to bring trauma to hapless children.

Very few parents took pains to explain the tragedy to children. Many adults tend to become oblivious to children around them and usually gloss over the possibility of emotional and psychological harm on kids brought by tragic images.

The Ondoy drama unfolded on television and exposed Filipino children to the horror of flooding and devastation. It was worse for thousands of kids who were themselves victims, their own houses and schools having been swamped. For weeks, scenes of the tragedy were transmitted to homes and again, very little effort was made by adults to explain the tragedy in terms that little children could understand. Everyone was too busy restoring order in their lives.

The Japan experience
Many media establishments set aside scheduled programming and skewed their broadcast agenda to accommodate the unfolding disaster in Japan. As this was being done, again very few adults at home were looking toward the direction of children, checking on how the realistic horrors were affecting the vulnerable kids.

Anak TV is now staging small focus group discussions with children of younger ages to determine how TV reportage on the tsunami had affected them. It hopes to know what adult news reporting may have overlooked when it did broadcasts without factoring in children, the largest audience of television today.

The study will ask boys and girls, in both urban and rural settings, how they received the disaster news and what watching or hearing that type of news did to them.

While the study will be far from scientific, the modest findings can be shared with child psychologists, educators and media researchers so that useful guidelines can be offered to broadcasters and helpful tips given to parents.

How kids make sense of it all
Initially, we found a link that led us to Barbara Curtis, an avid blogger at MommyLife.net and mother of a dozen children and grandmother of another 12. The devoutly Christian teacher at AMI Montessori offers these wonderful tips to help children make sense of disaster:

Do all you can to make this a meaningful event for your children, and to manage the meaning in a way that will build their character, their compassion, and their willingness to sacrifice for those in need.

Watch the post-tsunami coverage with them, putting the images into words — especially as the aftermath on the ground becomes more up-close-and-personal.

Don't let your little ones be blindsided by glimpses of broken bodies and weeping parents on TV. Without your intervention, these images can produce deep fears which children have no language to share.
Show them on a globe where you live and where Japan's earthquake was centered. Show them images of life in Japanese cities and villages before the tsunami struck.

Teach them to give, but teach them in a way that involves real sacrifice on their part. Put a jar in the middle of the table, as a constant visual reminder, and fill it with change that would have gone to sweets or something currently taken for granted. Young children can only comprehend the abstract when we make it concrete. The sight of the jar, the sound of the change hitting the glass — these seem insignificant to us, but will shape memories for children of their first sacrificial giving.

Once we start to hear more news of what's happening on the ground, read or tell your children the stories of survivors. These will instill a message of hope, reinforcing in your children the habit of turning in that direction when times are tough.

Look especially for stories of courage and selflessness. The lesson: even a little person can make a big difference.

(If interested in the advocacy for family-friendly television, visit anaktvweb.com or email the foundation at anaktv_seal@yahoo.com.)