For the past six months, I’ve used Google Gemini to do something few other tools can accomplish: synthesize news stories and turn them into simple but engaging summaries for children.
My nine-year-old son Avi is curious about the world as he enters a stage in his life where he’ll ask about, say, the role of AI technology, or how do wildfires start. But when he’s dabbled in reading the news online or listening to a report on CNN, he gets confused. The way the news is delivered can be complex for pre-teens.
Also, these kids simply are ignoring the news. A 2025 survey found that about only one in nine of 11- to 13-year-olds in the U.S. said they regularly get their news through any kind of app.
Enter Gemini, which has allowed me to use prompts to encapsulate news of the day and pop out recaps and stories ideal for a nine-year-old kid. During our bedtime reading sessions, between chapters of The Hobbit or the latest Dog Man, I’ll share with him these shortened and streamlined articles. He’ll go to bed with a clearer understanding of what people are talking about daily, armed with deep knowledge about a topic that fuels his curiosity.
Below are some of the prompts I’ve used with real headlines I’ve found in local or national news media (note I’m based in Canada).
The ‘summarize this’ prompt
Gemini is often adept at taking in all sorts of links, even those with paywalls.
What works best is inserting the URL and inputting this prompt: Summarize this news story and make it understandable and interesting for a nine-year-old child.
I recently found a news article about wildfires raging in Northern Ontario, forcing some residents to live in hotels temporarily. It’s the kind of story we’ve heard on repeat in Canada due to wildfires blazing from B.C. to Quebec, affecting thousands of communities.
Gemini summed up the news report and offered a simple way for my son to sort out what’s happening:
Imagine your house is surrounded by a giant, smoky bonfire, and you have to leave quickly! That's kind of what happened to a community called Deer Lake First Nation, far away in Northern Ontario….Now, all 900 people from Deer Lake are staying in hotels near a big airport in Toronto. It's a bit like a big, long sleepover, but away from their own beds and familiar places. The grown-ups, like their leader Chief Leonard, are working hard to make sure everyone is safe and happy…”
My son appreciated how this summary made the news story more relatable while also refraining from attaching any scary imagery that may instigate nightmares.
The ‘tell me a story’ prompt
We all love stories, from when our parents read us Dr. Seuss at night to Black Mirror episodes we post about on socials soon after they air. That’s why I decided to bring storytime to our media moments.
I realized how science and health coverage can especially be dense for children and require a lighter touch if there was going to be any chance of them retaining information.
I used the ‘tell me a story’ prompt for this article on screen time and kids, a topic that comes up often in our household.
The prompt I use is: ‘Tell me a story with relatable characters for a nine year old boy based on this news story…’ and then I’ll insert the link.
The output reminds me of the podcast LOL Storytime, where realistic characters take part in fun adventures or are embroiled in family situations other kids can see in themselves.
Below is what Gemini gave us that evening:
“Leo loved his video games. He had his own little gaming corner in his room, with a big comfy beanbag and his favorite headphones. Every day after school, the first thing he wanted to do was dive into the world of "Pixel Quest," where he was a brave knight rescuing pixilated princesses.
Lately, though, things at home felt a little… glitchy. When his mom called him for dinner, he'd often pretend not to hear, his fingers flying across the controller. Sometimes, when his little sister, Mia, wanted to play, he’d get super annoyed and even yell a little. He knew it wasn't nice, but he just felt… sticky inside, like he couldn't switch off the game even when he tried…”
By the story’s end, Avi understood how too much screen time can lead to feelings of anger and frustration, and why going outside can ease that “glitchy” emotion.
‘Bullet point takeaways’ prompt
Sometimes, certain news updates don’t need the storytelling treatment; my son just wants the most important information without any fluff. For example, he loves all things Nintendo Switch and he wanted to find out the latest news about his favourite gaming console.
I turned to Gemini to summarize this review of the new Switch 2, using this prompt:
“Summarize this report using bullet point takeaways that would be understandable to a nine-year-old boy.”
The output was just what Avi wanted. The slow intro is stripped away and I read to him the key bullet points:
A new Mario Kart game is coming out with it, and it's also more expensive. This new game costs $80!
Nintendo usually tries to make their game systems affordable for families, but this one is more expensive.
The new Switch 2 is more powerful, so games will look even better, load super fast, and run really smoothly. It's like watching a movie with no pauses or blurry parts!
I like to think AI-enabled news stories for kids will be leveraged by more than just parents. I can see teachers, especially, using these prompts to teach children about interesting or complex headlines in order to foster a greater appreciation for journalism and media literacy.
After all, we can’t just hope kids will find ways to learn about what’s happening around them; we have to use freely available technologies to enable them to do exactly that.
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