One of them was 11. Many news organizations and their reporters impose their own restraints. During the sixteen years he covered local news for various TV stations and the eighteen years after that he worked in national news at CNN, Earl Casey, now a CNN spokesman, developed a list of half a dozen factors to consider when deciding whether or not to interview children for breaking news. These include their age and maturity, the degree of violence involved, the child's connection to any victims, the presence of parental permission, whether the footage is live or taped. If the child is a witness and has information about the news event, we consider it permissible, though not preferable, to interview without parental permission.
Every case is individual.
Psychologist Scott Poland, president-elect of the National Emergency Assistance Team of the National Association of School Psychologists, who led crisis teams after the shootings in Littleton, Paducah, and Jonesboro, suggests 13 as a rough dividing line. Tompkins himself has given children his card to pass along to their parents when he thought their explanation of his conversation with them might be lacking and the parents might want to call him themselves. Among large news organizations, CNN is unusual in the explicitness of its policy on the kinds of questions children should, or should not, be asked, and the circumstances under which they can be interviewed at all. To begin with, reporters must make sure the children are safe and away from the news scene. CNN's distinction between simply asking kids what they saw and putting them on the spot is crucial in situations in which children are victims.