Navigating Social Media Exposure of Natural Disasters and Mass Violence Incidents

Question: What are the best practices for navigating social media exposure of natural disasters and mass violence incidents for adolescents and teens? Sources to provide to concerned parents would be beneficial.

Answer: Adolescents are likely to encounter social media content about natural disasters and mass violence incidents, especially for recent events where news is being shared widely on social media. Studies with children and adolescents have found that adolescents are more likely than their younger counterparts both to be exposed to disaster coverage (Houston et al., 2018) and to seek out war coverage (Pfefferbaum et al., 2020). Even if adolescents are not on social media, they are likely to still hear about these events from friends, at school, from adults, or from traditional news media like TV. 

Evidence on how parental monitoring and restriction of disaster media impacts children and adolescents are mixed, with some research suggesting that heavily restricting disaster media exposure can be harmful (Houston et al., 2018). Researchers have also found that parents' reactions to media coverage about war can also impact children (Pfefferbaum et al., 2020).

While it may not be practical or helpful to try to shield teens completely from coverage about violence and disasters, there are steps adults can take to help support teens as they navigate social media exposure to scary or upsetting events: 

Discussing the events and providing explanations can help reduce distress for children and adolescents if parents are able to do so in a way that does not convey their own distress about the topic.  

1. Prepare yourself. The Healthychildren.org article Taking Care of Yourself during Disasters: Info for Parents provides information and resources for parents to prepare themselves to talk with their children.
2. Review and utilize helpful resources (see below). Once parents are ready to talk with their adolescents about violence or disasters there are resources available that provide a variety of conversation starters, tips, and examples to help parents help their adolescents navigate disaster and violence coverage on social media.
3. Have a family discussion (or not!). Rather than trying to get adolescents to stop using social media during disaster events, parents can help by talking to their teens about what they are seeing and hearing to provide support, correct misunderstandings, and encourage a healthy balance between staying informed and avoiding repetitive consumption of violent content. Before launching into a discussion, it might be helpful to do a quick check-in with your child to see where they are emotionally. If they are already dealing with heightened emotion or depression, give them permission not to do a deep dive into current events on social media if they don’t feel up to it. Table the discussion until a time where you are both feeling able to listen and think clearly.
4. Brainstorm ways to use social media to help. Social media is often used in a variety of ways to help with disaster recovery, including garnering donations and financial support through sharing donation links, fostering social cohesion through expressions of gratitude, care, and concern, sharing critical information about the event, and supporting mental health through peer support and humor (Ogie et al, 2022). Parents can support teens by pointing out ways to engage positively with social media content to help recovery efforts which may reduce feelings of helplessness.  

Recommended Resources: 

• In this HealthlyChildren.org article, Dr. David Schonfeld provides suggestions to help parents and caregivers support children around the Israel-Gaza War in a constructive and helpful way. While focused on the current conflict, these strategies are applicable to a wide variety of potentially upsetting content. 
• HealthyChildren.org provides strategies for parents to talk with children about disasters. 
• Children and Screens has put together 12 tips for how families can work through exposure to violence online. 
• Common Sense Media offers ways to help children process and cope with news about violence, crime, and war. 
• UNICEF provides 8 tips for parents to support and comfort their children around conflict and war.   
• The National Association for School Psychologists shares Talking to children about violence: Tips for Families & Educators and includes considerations for specific age ranges.  
• In Talking with kids about footage of violence by Devorah Heitner, PhD, Dr. Heitner discusses proactive approaches adults can take with older children to balance “the need to be informed and to know what’s going on in the world with the need to feel safe enough to sleep at night.” 

References 

• Busso, D. S., McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2014). Media exposure and sympathetic nervous system reactivity predict PTSD symptoms after the Boston Marathon bombings. Depression and Anxiety, 31, 551–558. doi:10.1002/da.22282 
• Duarte, C. S., Wu, P., Cheung, A., Mandell, D. J., Fan, B., Wicks, J., . . . Hoven, C. W. (2011). Media use by children and adolescents from New York City 6 months after the WTC attack. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 24, 553–556. doi:10.1002/jts.20687 
• Houston, J. B., Spialek, M. L., & First, J. (2018). Disaster media effects: A systematic review and synthesis based on the differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 68(4), 734-757. 
• Ogie, R. I., James, S., Moore, A., Dilworth, T., Amirghasemi, M., & Whittaker, J. (2022). Social media use in disaster recovery: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 70, 102783. 
• Otto, M. W., Henin, A., Hirshfeld-Becker, D. R., Pollack, M. H., Biederman, J., & Rosenbaum, J. F. (2007). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following media exposure to tragic events: Impact of 9/11 on children at risk for anxiety disorders. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 888–902 
• Pfefferbaum, B., Tucker, P., Varma, V., Varma, Y., Nitiéma, P., & Newman, E. (2020). Children’s reactions to media coverage of war. Current Psychiatry Reports, 22, 1-14. 
• Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2013). The differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 63, 221–243. doi:10.1111/jcom.12024 

Age: 10-18  

Topics: War, violence, disasters, exposure to harmful content 

Role: Clinician