A mother has provoked the people online after she claimed that her children shouldn’t be watching news programs at school- even if those programs were particularly made for young people. The anonymous woman took her matter to Mumsnet, questioning, whether it was illogical of her to want her children’s school to discontinue showing the kids episode of BBC Newsround.

BBC Newsround was a current affair broadcast on television for children aged between 6 and 12. The mum said she didn't allow her children to watch the news at home because of how disturbing it could be and didn't think it was right for young people to be learning about what was happening in the world. She wrote that every class at her children’s school seemed to watch Newsround daily.

Her family, on purpose, refrained from watching the news around the kids, because so much of it was scary for people who haven’t yet got adult perspectives on things. News TV was intentionally standardized to make it as eye-catching and striking as possible and obviously focused more on bad stuff than anything else.

She asked the readers that was it fair for the children to be confronted with the dark side of human nature when it was their age to enjoy childhood. The mother also detailed specific news stories her children had heard about which she believed was not appropriate- including the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin the previous year and the recent terror attack which saw a bomb explode inside a taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

She added that her eight-year-old came home impatiently saying to her that a taxi blew up and she found it very fascinating. On previous occasions, they have come home telling her things like George Floyd’s murder- including graphic details of how he was killed- and North Korea possibly having nuclear weapons. Her 10-year-old even asked if she thought they would have World War III caused by North Korea.

However, the woman’s post has been criticized by other Mumsnet users, who stood on the ground that Newsround was designed to present current affairs in a child-friendly way and said the mum couldn’t keep her children from hearing about the news.

One person replied that Newsround was ideal for children to learn about current events in an age-appropriate way. Better for them to see what actually happened than get misleading information from playground gossip, talk radio, or an adult discussion. One couldn’t protect them from hearing about the news.

While another said that eight and ten were old enough to start learning about the world in an age-appropriate manner. He also said that if her 10-year-old thought that taxis blowing up was ‘cool’ it sounded like he could do with a little more exposure to real life, not less. A third agreed, adding that he thought it was absolutely great the school was showing them Newsround. Kids pick up on stuff anyway, far better to have it explained to them in a non-sensationalist way that they would understand.