[SlackDad]

I think we have to be careful here of interpreting the world the way we see it and assuming that children interpret it in the the same way. I remember an episode of 'Child Of Our Time', where young children of about age 5 were shown a clip of a nasty accident in a soap opera, and then asked about it afterwards. From what I recall very few actually picked out elements that the adults assumed they would have.

Also, is being scared always a negative thing?

I think the news is far more worrying than most pre-watershed programmes or adverts, but conversely we would likely see children viewing this as positive and educational.