Do kids follow the news and, if so, what would be the best way to present it to them?
Bianca Colaco, 10, goes through currentkids.in and gives her verdict. Pic/Bipin Kokate
"I do read newspapers, my family subscribes to most of the papers, but I don't read all of them," says Bianca Colaco, a 10-year-old resident of Marine Lines. "I read the headlines, and if I like something, then I read the whole story."
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Do kids follow the news and, if so, what would be the best way to present it to them? Recently, a website called currentkids.in was launched with the aim of breaking down news for children aged eight and above. So, what does a young child think about this?
Colaco says clearly that what she is interested in mostly is "information about science and discoveries."
That the site has tabs for these sections means she can spend time reading exactly what she wishes to, and not having to read about "money". But, is she interested in politics? She talks about how her brother, a 15-year-old, often discusses recent events surrounding US President Donald Trump, much of which she doesn't get. "However, this site had an article about Trump and Kim Jong Un that I could understand. I like how they write and the pictures they used were also really good," says Colaco, now a Std V student at Bombay International School.
Bianca says she doesn't watch the news on the television. Her grandfather does and sometimes, while sitting with him she knows what's happening in the world. Her brother gets hourly updates on his phone from a news site.
Bianca's mother Kermin says, "I'm very happy that she found a website she likes to be updated with for world events. Every story is simplified to a child's level of understanding, so she doesn't need to ask me many questions as it's all self explanatory. It also shields the children from the violent news reports in the papers and chooses age-appropriate content."
What Colaco remains unhappy about, however, is that in the four days of getting on the site, not a single story had been updated. "It was all the same stories. I read most of the sections," she adds. She hopes that will get fixed soon.
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