Title: Lying
Producer: Emily Halevy
Feed: CWKN #383, May 7, 2008
Time: 1:34
SUGGESTED LEAD: A SURVEY BY PENN STATE FINDS THAT 98 PERCENT OF TEENS SAY LYING IS MORALLY WRONG.  BUT … IN THE VERY SAME SURVEY … 98 PERCENT SAY THEY’VE LIED TO THEIR PARENTS.  WHY DO THE SAME KIDS, WHO KNOW LYING IS WRONG, DO IT ANYWAY?  CONNECT WITH KIDS HAS THE STORY. 
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NARR: WHY DO KIDS LIE? (:02)

SOT: Eric, 13 years old (:04)
“When I lie, I usually mainly lie to get out of something.”

SOT: Annie, 12 years old (:07)
“It’s like human nature. You don’t … you can’t really stop yourself sometimes, from lying.”

SOT: Caroline, 17 years old (:11)
“I think in some cases, it’s ok. Like, I think if you don’t, like if you don’t want to tell your parents, like, then that’s really none of their business.”

NARR: RESEARCHERS AT PENN STATE SURVEYED TEENS ON A 36 DIFFERENT TOPICS… THE KIDS SAID THEY LIED TO THEIR PARENTS ABOUT 12 OF THESE TOPICS: LIKE HOW THEY SPENT THEIR MONEY, WHAT MOVIES THEY WENT TO, WHAT THEY DID AFTER SCHOOL, AND WHETHER THEY RODE IN CARS WITH A DRUNK DRIVER. (:16)

SOT: Tim Jordan, M.D., Pediatrician (:34)
“I think in some ways they’re saying, ‘I think I need to have some secrets, I need to have some of my own private life, it’s important.’”

NARR: EXPERTS SAY KIDS LEARN ABOUT LYING FROM EACH OTHER … AND FROM ADULTS. (:04)

SOT: Tim Jordan, M.D., Pediatrician (:45)
“Like when … when parents lie about their kids being a certain age so they get a cheaper price for the movies, which is a small, simple thing, but there’s a lot of little examples like that, that kids see where adults fudge.”

NARR:  WHAT’S MORE, HE SAYS, IF PARENTS WILL REPEAT THE MESSAGE OVER AND OVER, EVENTUALLY KIDS LEARN ABOUT LYING AND RIGHT AND WRONG … AND, IN TIME, THEY’LL NO LONGER HEAR THEIR PARENT’S VOICE, THEY’LL HEAR THEIR OWN. (:12)        

SOT: Tim Jordan, M.D., Pediatrician (1:07)
“ …  and so they have to have their own internal justice system established and I think that comes from, in the home, having a series of conversations over many, many years about right and wrong.”

NARR:16-YEAR-OLD CHIOMA (kee-OH-mah) OTEH (OH-tay) LIED TO HER MOM ABOUT WHICH MOVIE SHE WENT TO SEE … BUT THEN SHE HAD TO TELL THE TRUTH. (:07)

SOT: Chioma (1:25)
“It was a load off my mind because when you lie, it’s kind of like haunting you, and it’s like weight on your shoulders, and then when you let it go, tell the truth, you know, you feel a lot better.”

NARR:  I’M COLLIN SIEDOR FOR CONNECT WITH KIDS. (:02)

SUGGESTED TAG:   FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS AND OTHER STORIES LOG ONTO WWW.CONNECTWITHKIDS.COM.