Children’s perceptions of scary news in Belgium: Examining parental mediation and consolation strategies from their perspective
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Negative news items can cause fear reactions in children, which has prompted various parental mediation strategies and recommendations for news makers on how to make the news less scary. However, recent studies about what factors in news elicit fear and how children themselves perceive and experience the mediation of news by adults are limited. This study therefore conducted 12 focus groups with children aged 8 to 12 (N = 101) in Belgium. Results show that proximity to the news event evokes fear in children. Furthermore, results indicate that children dislike restrictive parental mediation. Children do not necessarily want to see the negative news content, but they want to decide themselves. Finally, the study indicates that children do not want negative news content to be minimized or avoided, thus highlighting the need for consolation strategies. Since the results showed that children are able to articulate which consolation strategies are useful to make news less frightening, this highlights the importance of media producers consulting children about their desires and needs and to adapt the children’s news content and format accordingly.
Source: Journal of Children and Media
Institution: KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409149558