The evening news contains footage of bombs exploding in Baghdad and the ensuing carnage, as well as gruesome details from crime cases such as the murder of Leigh Matthews.
Matthews, a 21-year-old student, was abducted and her body was found in the veld west of Johannesburg.
Parents will instinctively try to shield young children from gruesome news events, but children are naturally curious and will want to find out what happened.
On Friday, SABC2 launches a youth-oriented news programme for children between the ages of eight and 14. The half-hour Kids News Room (KNR) will focus on news and current affairs and package it for children.
”I have been dreaming of realising a programme like this for a long time,” Jacqui Hlongwane-Papo, prodject manager of KNR, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday.
”The reason it took us until now to produce news for kids is that children are not a priority in this country. For a long time, children have not been [held] in any regard.
”They were supposed to be quiet, not seen and not heard. They were not encouraged to express their opinion. In this country, everything is a priority and information for children has not been on top of that list.”
The aim is to inform children about what is going on in the world and South Africa. Complicated topics or gruesome stories will not be avoided; they will be explained in such a way that children will understand.
”We would tell that Leigh Matthews was murdered and that she was raped. We would explain what the word ‘rape’ means. We would not try to protect children from the content of the news, but explain it to them so that they understand.
”On the other hand, we would be careful with the pictures we show. We would show where Matthews was found, but we would not show the stains of blood in the field.
”We would also make sure that not the whole programme is filled with gruesome topics. If we would deal with the Matthews case, we would also pick a few stories that are light news. Stories on animals are, for example, very appealing for kids.”
KNR is partially funded by a Dutch organisation, Freevoice, that aims to promote independent journalism in the developing world.
In a country where 44% of the population is younger than 15, there should be a good news programme for kids, is Freevoice’s philosophy .
The 10-minute news insert section of the programme will focus on the top stories from the past week, and will be pitched at the children in a way they can understand. The rest of the programme will deal with current affairs.
Dutch journalists — who have successfully been working on a similar news programme in The Netherlands — have now trained the South African news team.
”Kids are kids all over the world and there is no difference between explaining difficult issues to kids in Holland or kids in South Africa,” said Thalita van den Boogaard from the Dutch public broadcaster, NOS.
”The main difference is that kids in Holland form a homogenous group and kids in South Africa do not. Rich white kids have different issues and different problems than poor black children.
”For the pilot episode, we wanted to do an item on heelies — shoes for kids with wheels — but these shoes are so expensive that they are only affordable to a small portion of South Africa’s children.
”The main reason to proceed with this item was that all children are interested in heelies. Even if they can not afford them, they want to know everything about them. It’s a craze and therefore it is news for kids.
”The main challenge for the South African team will be to produce news that will appeal to all children.”
”The training by the Dutch colleges has been very useful,” said Robyn Smith, the KNR news editor.
”What we mostly have learned is to be more creative with the format of the programme.
”The SABC [South African Broadcasting Corporation] tends to make very formal news or at least place it in a formal setting. But children need a lively show to keep them interested, and we got some good ideas from the Dutch.”
KNR is broadcasted every Friday at 4pm on SABC2