When Children Ask meaning of "terrorism"

In the virtual world and the mass media, the horror of the terror attacks spread without censorship. Not only adults, children do not understand, too exposed to acts of terrorism such information.

After hours of live broadcasts impressions witnessed bombings in Sarinah Thamrin area of ??Jakarta on television, perhaps many small children are familiar with the word "terrorism".

Not just news about terrorism, news of the crime such as homicide or robbery are also frequently watched children from the television screen or the mass media.

"My nephew who was only 4 years old so often ask what the terrorists. Earlier also he wanted to know the meaning of the robber, rapist or murderer," said Indah, a journalist.

Explaining crime news to early childhood is not easy. They generally only guess what happened.

However according to a forensic psychologist Nathanael EJ Sumampouw M.Psi, adults do not need to give a lengthy explanation and no need to cover up the real events.

Nael suggested, before giving an answer to the question of children, dug out through dialogue with the child to determine the extent of the child's understanding of events.

"For example, if he asked the meaning of terrorists or rapists, dig information about what he knew. Then ask if he thought the perpetrator was a good guy or bad, like if he was friends with people like that, and so on," said psychologist who is usually called Nael The discussions held in the Forum Chat Bareng Friends (Ngobras) in Jakarta (19.01.16).

Do not also give false hope to the children. "It should be emphasized to parents not to give false hope that everything will be fine. Give honest explanation but in language that is easy to understand children, "said Nael.

After that, to say also that in this world there are good people, for example, there is the father of the police whose job cripple terrorists and maintain security, or there is also a doctor who helped the injured.

"So there is a sad story, but also to say there is a good story about the heroes in our environment," he said.

Read also: Anticipation Trauma in Children due Terrorism Coverage