In one cartoon in Astrapi , a magazine for young people, a boy says: "Terrorism scares me". A girl cuts in to say, "But freedom makes the terrorists even more fearful". The Astrapi editors had decided to publish a special insert to address the questions of their own readers and parents: should we be scared? Why kill innocent people? What should we do?

And so in a series of sophisticated, direct pieces, children were told that terrorists are fanatical, hateful outliers, that freedom makes them a target but is also their greatest defence, and that we must defy evil by continuing to live.

In an interview with the New York Times, Francois Dufour, the editor in chief of Le Petit Quotidien, a Parisian newspaper for children, said his coverage had been driven by the questions of kids he met with: why do they attack us? Will it happen again? Why do they kill themselves? Why do they hate rock 'n' roll so much as to kill because of it?

The lead story, which was reported so that a seven-year-old could understand, began: "On Friday, Nov. 134, in the evening, men full of hate decided to kill innocent people."

The newspaper Liberation also produced an edition particularly for children (and can we just pause to announce how excellent this idea is – I'd love The Sydney Morning Herald to consider this on occasion), with a map showing the area controlled by Islamic State – while stressing it is not a state. Liberation also outlined the different goals of IS: "Some of them are going after countries that are already occupied by other people and others want to force everyone to follow their religion or to have the same ideas as they have. These terrorists are called jihadists. What they're doing has nothing to do with Islam."

This crucial point was common to coverage aimed at children. Astrapi editors wrote: "These ultra-violent people have nothing to do with the majority of Muslims, who live peacefully. They're attacking France because it is a free country, where everyone can express himself and live how he wishes." The best thing to do, the magazine advised, was to "continue to live normally and to defend your ideas while you respect others."

According to local writer and New York Times contributing editor Pamela Druckerman, most Parisians have followed the advice of Francoise Dolto, the French Dr Spock who has always told them to just be honest. Children, in other words, don't need to be jollied, they need to be informed. (Liberation said plainly: "attacks are still very rare. But for now, we cannot say there won't be more.")

There can be no blanket approach to talking to children; some will panic, some will digest it slowly, some will fret. You will know your own kids best. What we can be sure of, from the clutch of psychologists who have spoken on this in the past few days, is that what is most important is to talk – or rather to listen, and let kids speak about their fears. And it is also to reassure, partly by pointing our how low the risk of them being harmed is. I'd also lean to limiting exposure to the footage if possible.