Frightened children

feature in the paper this morning.
These are normal children but they are being frightened by the news, by social media posts, by political advertising, by their peers, by their teachers and more.
School is not a safe haven. They "need to know about...." and so on.
I remember school. I don't remember it fondly. I was bored most of the time. It was one reason why I was constantly in trouble for "reading under the desk". 
What would I be doing now? I would probably be reading something I was not supposed to be reading but I would be reading it on the screen in front of me.  I know I would be bored but worried - worried about the state of the world.
My goddaughter, now training to be a doctor, was not allowed to see the newspapers or watch the news on television until she was in her teens. This was not an edict by her parents but an edict by her school - a prestigious school for girls in London. The school had (and still has) very high academic standards. It isn't a school that would suit everyone because it still has strict rules about these things and about the use of social media.  It can't limit those things entirely but anyone abusing the rules can find themselves booted out after repeat offences. 
The school gets outstanding examination results. Going through the school the girls grumble. When they leave they say it has been a good thing.
Ms W's school is not quite as strict - but they do have rules. Students are expected to abide by those rules. Ms W has a phone but it is kept in the boarding house office and she only uses it to talk to her father each evening. At weekends she has it with her to contact her father if she is out with someone else. Her friends have phones and use them a great deal more than she does - but only outside school. Using a phone in school is simply not allowed. Being caught with one has serious consequences.
The school can't stop social media now. Using it is discouraged and anyone using it to abuse someone else is liable to suspension.
Ms W still doesn't have her own email account. She has thought about it - and decided she rarely writes emails. If she does it is a matter of, "I haven't got anything to hide from my Dad and he won't read what I write anyway. I don't read his." 
I know - Ms W is a bit unusual.
I thought of all this yesterday and then again this morning. Do children and teens really need all the news and the social media? My goddaughter has done outstandingly well without it. Ms W is doing extremely well too. My nephews couldn't be bothered with those things - and their current Facebook pages are apparently nothing more than letting friends in other parts of the world know the results of their go-kart races (and the problems they have faced) and similar innocuous things. Middle Cat's page is full of animal videos, family photos and the like. I am not "friends" with any of them because mine is limited to people I know and like but don't see and want to be in touch with. I have other ways of talking to family members. 
As Ms W puts it, "If I want to talk to my friends I want to really talk to them. I don't want to push buttons."
As for the news she tells me, "I have to know some of that stuff but I don't have to know it all the time. And at least I can ask my Dad about it."
Yes, she can. She's fortunate.His job requires him to be constantly aware of what is going on in the world.
Perhaps that's part of the problem. Do parents and other adults believe that the media and social media can educate their children for them? 
If they do then that is alarming.