Children Can Be Loud and Still Have No Voice

Sometimes the darker aspects of tourism come as a surprise to both children and grownups. What child wouldn’t want to visit one of the many Ripley’s Believe It Or Not exhibits, and be enchanted walking through a dazzling maze of mirrors? Imagine how many giggles and how much creative inspiration they might experience watching adorable live penguins in Ripley’s Aquarium do artistic painting with their wide, webbed feet. How cool is it to see Star Wars memorabilia or a Rolls Royce made out of matchsticks? Kids may even have an appetite for beholding a portrait of Justin Bieber made entirely of candy. 

But they may not be emotionally or psychologically prepared to come face to face with Ripley’s extensive collection of shrunken human heads or bowls made from human skulls. 

Many Children Are Afraid of the Dark

Then there are those youngsters who participate in tourism that is intentionally dark – so the macabre aspect of the sites they tour is the focal point of the attraction. 

Each year, tens of thousands of children visit the Paris Catacombs – the final resting place of at least 6,000,000 Parisians. Throngs of children visit the Cambodian Killing Fields, Mexico’s Guanajuato Mummy Museum, and the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which showcases exhibits that the College of Physicians of Philadelphia website describes as “disturbingly informative.” Among the items on display there are human skulls and body parts preserved in fluid. Kids can even see what’s left of Albert Einstein’s brain. 

Might that motivate a child to become a scientist? Or could it gross them out and compel them to completely avoid scientific studies? Yes, combining the elements of childhood with those of dark tourism can be a complex experiment that’s tricky to successfully navigate.

The Risk of Unintended Consequences

Developmentally, children don’t typically have the emotional and cognitive capacity to prepare themselves for a confrontation with human suffering and death. Many don’t yet have an understanding of the nature of death. Their reaction to dark tourism can be traumatic and leave them anxious and fearful. They may start worrying that they are soon going to live through a horrific experience, or that they or their parents or other loved ones are facing imminent death. That can also lead to unanticipated repercussions for the grownups accompanying them on those visits, as young children begin asking dark, heavy questions adults aren’t sure how to answer in an age-appropriate way. 

That sort of reaction is certainly not something you plan for as the grand takeaway from a family vacation excursion or a school field trip. 

Which Tourist Attractions Would You Rate PG?

For instance, many children visit the lush green Aokigahara Forest in Japan, which is known as “The Sea of Trees.” The forest is home to diverse flora and fauna, including many varieties of wildflowers, trees, animals, and birds. But Aokigahara, located on the famously scenic Mount Fuji, is also called “The Suicide Forest,” because large numbers of people have gone there to take their own lives. So many, in fact, that the Japanese government instituted suicide prevention measures at the site. There are signs posted throughout the forest, with messages meant to deter suicide, such as “Think carefully about your children, and your family.” 

Think carefully about your children, indeed, because you won’t find signs posted in the forest warning you that visiting such a place may cause children to dwell on suicide and death − or ask you why so many people enter the forest each year and never come out alive. 

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Nevertheless, visits to dark tourism sites can educate, inspire, and entertain children. Those experiences can expand their view of the world, human nature, and history. They can provide wonderful life-affirming insights and memorable, positive, valuable experiences that may be more meaningful than those they derive from books, videos, or even classroom studies. But participating in dark tourism can also confuse, frighten, and repulse them. 

Kids sometimes leave comments that reflect their varied and often complicated experiences of dark tourism – ranging from sad and distressed to delighted and grateful:

“Scared and wanted to leave.”

“I love this place.”

“Very creepy but it was okay!”

“I feel bad that you died but you died for us and I thank you for that.”

“…very interesting in a scientific way…but on the other hand I was feeling like throwing up.”

“I never knew that museums were as grossly fun and interesting…”

“Thank you for this learning experience.”

“This is the worst I want to go home.”

“This place is the best…tons of cool things like skeletons!”

The interaction between children and dark tourism is complicated. But we need to find ways to ensure that kids derive maximum benefit from their tourism experiences, with minimal risk.

Children Deserve to Be Both Seen and Heard

Dr. Philip R. Stone is the Executive Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research, and an internationally recognized scholar in the field of dark tourism. In a book chapter titled Seen but Not Heard he wrote: 

“Tourism is recognised as a powerful force for change for host destinations, with both positive and negative consequences, yet the focus is often upon adults.” 

Stone and other leading scholars also point out that much research had been done, and many policies have been implemented, to support the health and well-being of specific groups of tourists such as the elderly or those living with disabilities. Meanwhile, children – despite being one of the most significant consumer groups within tourism – are conspicuously absent and largely invisible within tourism research, especially research into dark tourism.

Let’s work together on behalf of children and young people to change that.