NBC hires a child psychiatrist to advise on Sept. 11 coverage

NEW YORK -- Most children 4 and under don't realize that it's a taped replay from Sept. 11 when television screens show the World Trade Center collapsing in a cloud of dust. They think it's happening all over again.

Some NBC News executives were taken aback when told that by Harold Koplewicz, a psychiatrist and founder of the New York University Child Study Center.

The network has taken the unusual step of hiring Koplewicz as an adviser, realizing the hours of coverage planned for the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks could reverberate in unexpected ways.

"If we're going to show images of the buildings falling down again, parents should be very concerned about the effect it will have on children," Koplewicz said. "Children under age 5 should not be watching this."

A study by the Harvard Medical School in June estimated that 50,000 schoolchildren in New York are at "extreme risk" because pre-existing emotional problems can compound the effects of trauma from the attacks.

That's just in New York City -- the epicenter of the terrorism. Television has the ability to spread the hurt around.

Koplewicz understands why the networks will cover the anniversary extensively. He's hoping for a little sensitivity; maybe broadcasters can warn parents in advance when some of the more disturbing images will be shown again.

Film of people running and screaming away from the debris cloud from the World Trade Center is particularly upsetting to young people, he said.

"I frankly don't see any value in kids seeing this," he said. "What upsets kids is seeing adults out of control."

Sparking a discussion

For children aged 5 to 12, Koplewicz advises parents to pick an hour when they expect the coverage to be relatively sedate, and watch it with their children. It should spark a discussion about what happened.

Parents often have much less control over what teen-agers watch. But Koplewicz suggests parents try to keep an eye on what they're doing, and talk about the event with them, too.