News site for kids has access to adult articles and topics.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
some
Because it’s fairly easy to access the regular CNN News site from CNN Student News, kids might encounter articles on murders, school shootings, and other violent topics.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
On most pages, the site includes ads for CNN's news shows and cable hosts as well as a few less obvious, smaller ads from organizations that are not likely to be of concern or interest to kids, such as employment sites or credit agencies.
Language
a little
Students can comment on the daily broadcast, discussions questions, and blog posts, though that seems fairly uncommon. They can access the main CNN News site fairly easily, where comments are filtered for profanity, but discussions can get heated and could include name calling.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.
The site encourages kids to form opinions and connect current events to their own lives through discussion.
Educational Value
some
Kids can learn about current events from the ten-minute daily broadcast of news stories and features, designed for kids in middle and high school. Broadcaster Carl Azuz narrates clips from correspondents in different parts of the world, filling in historical details and background and giving them context. Although there are some supplementary resources that round out the stories and fill in details and context for kids, it's not clear that kids would access these elements on their own. Some guidance is recommended to help kids sort out the stories presented in the daily news feature and keep them from straying off of the student site.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that there's nothing offensive on the CNN Student News site itself, and no personal information is required to use the site's features. However, links at the top of the page give access to the main CNN News site, where kids might encounter stories with mature topics such as crime, drugs, violence, or rape. For optimal learning, some guidance is recommended to help kids sort out the stories presented in the daily news feature and keep kids from straying off of the student site.
Teacher and parent here.
While, CNN itself does have a left lean, CNN10 is truly reporting the facts, no opinion and no analysis added. It does talk about what is actually going on in the world so I do recommend it for middle school and up, but not elementary school. Some reviews falsely claim that there is “graphic footage” of war or violence. There may be footage of police responding to the scene, interviews with victims, or views of war torn areas but nothing close to what is shown on the local and national stations, and certainly nothing graphic.
In terms of bias, it truly is devoid of the lean its’ parent station has. I’ve even had students fond of former President Trump watch episodes and say that it wasn’t what they were expecting in a good way because it seem “unpolitical.” We must inform our students of what is happening in the world and CNN10 is the most accessible way to do so.
While CNN 10 is produced by CNN as the parent company, this is not the same as CNN's regular news. Reporting of controversial topics is fair and balanced (unlike CNN itself). Free to everyone on youtube- recommend watching it.
The stories are geared towards teens and cover the biggest current event stories, but also other types of human interest stories that teenagers find entertaining.
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
The CNN Student News home page has neatly arranged and easy-to-follow sections that give the necessary information for students, parents, and teachers. The main feature is the daily news report, in which broadcaster Carl Azuz offers up the news of the day with explanations that include important background information for understanding the issues. The Resources section includes transcripts of each broadcast, discussion suggestions, and downloadable maps, all targeted to the topics. The FAQ section provides helpful information for all users.
CNN Student News is addressed to parents and teachers as well as kids, and it may be that the site is best used in a classroom or with parental guidance. The main feature, the daily news broadcast, lumps together multiple stories, making the narration sound like a very long run-on sentence. Each story can stand on its own and is extremely informative, appropriate, and interesting, but kids will need some guidance to stop the video after each segment, whether to discuss it, get additional information, or simply reflect a bit.
The site is clearly labeled, and resources and additional stories are easy to find. The linked sections offer video broadcasts from CNN shows and can stand on their own. Independent reviewing of these sections may get kids drawn in and interested in related issues. The site has a lot to offer and much can be learned by using the materials provided.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the news. Help kids analyze media by discussing the presentation of one of the featured news stories. What made the story interesting? Are there opinions expressed in it? Whose views are shown?
Select one of the human interest feature stories. Ask your kids if they were influenced by the story? In what way? What did they learn from this particular article?
Watch a 15-minute local news broadcast with your child and discuss how it differs from the CNN Student News broadcast of the same day. Are there overlapping stories? If so, why might this be the case?
Website Details
Subjects:
Social Studies
:
cultural understanding,
events,
global awareness,
government,
the economy
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Lynne Glasner
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
