At 7, kids may struggle to process something so complex. You did the right thing by turning it off when he asked. It’s important to acknowledge their feelings, explain things in a way they can understand, and provide reassurance. You might say something like, “Sometimes people make very bad choices that hurt others, but most people in the world are kind and want to help.”

Encourage open conversation. Let him ask questions and share his feelings. If he seems particularly affected, you could focus on the stories of people helping or showing kindness after the tragedy—this can balance the heavy emotions with hope and humanity.

Sadly we live in a World now where we can’t protect children from hearing about the horrors happening around the World. You need to reassure him that bad things do happen but also that good things happen to people too. Make him feel safe and secure in the knowledge that you are always there beside him and that these horrible things that happen are out of our control. Providing he feels safe with you it should allay his fears.

i think it’s a bit different when it something they know is real and it involves children is always more close to home.

I hope you had success in addressing this sensitive subject with your child.

The news and horror movies and any movies should only be viewed at certain ages. Children need to have the capacity to understand what they are viewing. These skills do not develop until children get older. Discretion is most certainly needed for children and viewing. Once watched children need to have sensitive and honest conversations about what they have seen.

There is probably a lot of distressed children following the latest tragedy. Those who personally knew the victims, especially families and close friends would be wise to accept counselling if offered or to seek it themselves. Grieving has no set length of time. For many, especially relatives it is oftenabout 12 months
I remember 911 was shown on TV – the same film clip non stop for several hours. I don’t know how many times the NZ tragedy has been broadcast, not only on TV but on radio too.
NZ also had huge tragedy a few years ago when they had that huge earthquake that killed and injured many in Christchurch. I know of one lady who was in a shopping centre when it happened and even a couple of year later could not go into that shopping centre. Most people who don’t live in NZ are not aware that they had after shocks for several months after the earthquake which flattened large areas of Christchurch, causing even more damage.

I would NEVER let my kids watch or listen to the news. It is sensationalised and there is so much content that is inappropriate for them to hear and that they are unable to understand or process. It is always doom and gloom and I think for small children, it scares them unnecessarily.

There should be such thing as kids news; news brought in a kid friendly way, with items presented that kids can cope with.

Such a tricky situation and luckily for us not an every day occurence. I think just check in to see how he’s feeling about it and if he has any questions you can only answer them openly and honestly just with no detail. There a quite a few websites around offering suggestions about how to have the difficult conversation. As the NZ Prime Minister said, it’s ok to grieve, it’s ok to ask questions

Good on him for asking you to turn it off and you for doing so. Things like that effect us all as they are real (unlike the other zombie things)

If its clearly making him upset it needs to be turned off right away. He’s obviously relating to it and he’s frightened. Just explain when you are both nice and calm.

He’s probably more upset because this is an actual, real life event. Real life is way scarier then games and movies. Some parents don’t let their kids watch the news because of the distress it causes them. Some kids are really badly affected by it. Maybe you should consider this for your child

Maybe he was upset because it was children and that made it more real than chucky and pennywise perhaps (my kids are the same – into horror type things like zombies, vampires etc).

In these situations I always try to point out the people doing good, the people helping the victims, and show my girls that there are always people to help and that they are kind and caring people.

i think this one was particularly traumatic because there were so many children killed and talked about in the media that the kids make that connection especially if they are the same age or know someone the same age, I think that is when it resonates with kids and they might start to think about the fact that it could have been them.

I hope your 7 year old becomes comfortable to talk to you when he feels up to it so he isn’t scared. Maybe a quiet word to his teacher to let him/her know that he is feeling sad by what happened and is thinking about it so the teacher can keep an eye on him at school.