http://wcbstv.com/local/jfk.air.traffic.2.1533423.html

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/CHILDS-PLAY-AT-JFK-86174177.html

Here's a couple.

It was poor judgment but I feel really sorry for the controller. 

I have a picture of my son at age four turning on controls in the cockpit of a 707 while I sit in the co-pilot seat and the pilot stands behind us.  The co-pilot ran to the terminal while we sat there, found my wife and came back with her camera to get some pictures for us. When I was a teenager, I was allowed to clear take offs (with an airport employees direction) for small planes (it was a rural airport--no jets).  Small plane pilots often let there kids call in their approaches.  It was never rampant and my dad was a pilot and aircraft owner but it was always supervised and common sense.  It was pilots wanting to share their love of the air with their kids.  Airports were like close knit communities and if you knew someone there who was a pilot, you were family.

The photo I mentioned was taken a few months before 9-11...they would never do that now.  I think the JFK thing was just a nostalgic part of the air community forgetting for a moment the times have changed (sadly).  I bet "dad" was standing right behind those kids coaching them word for word what to say (and they did great) and with his hand near the controls and a headset on.  Hope he keeps his job.  Did you notice none of the pilots asnwering back were troubled or alarmed.  They understood.

Ya, I agree. An air traffic controller is known as being one of the most stressful jobs out there. The reason for that is that the job requires constant attention and awareness of everything that is going on at all times. While nothing bad came of it, that doesn't mean that if you allow something like that to happen again that it will have the same outcome. Kids shouldn't be in the control tower. The air traffic controllers should be paying attention to what the pilots are doing and directing them, not if their kid is doing those things that they should be doing correctly.

Both the supervisor and the controller are suspended as of right now.

And my guess is these policy will straight forward and simple.  

If anything, I'm inclined to believe that having his children there relieved stress and increased security. People need to stop confusing professionalism with being robotized automatons. Well, congratulations, security and the average lifespan have increased since the times where air ports were open and children were a regular element of almost any worksite at any given day. Living standards, quality of life and happiness, however, has not.