London - Kate Winslet has revealed how she has banned her children from using social media, claiming parents are “losing control” of their children to smartphones.
The Oscar-winning actress urged parents to be more “hands-on”, even offering advice on how to keep their kids’ attention.
Her comments come ahead of the release of her latest film Steve Jobs, in which she plays the “work wife” of the Apple co-founder who brought technology to the masses.
But it seems the mother of three, 40, has a rather sceptical view of his legacy. Admitting she would be “slagged off” for her controversial comments, Miss Winslet described going out for dinner and witnessing “children ... on their devices, not looking up or even talking, not even saying hello, not even saying thank you ... They go into a world and the parents let them do it”.
She continued: “There are too many interruptions these days – and devices are a huge interruption.”
She said social networking sites make her “blood boil” because of the huge impact they have on the self-esteem of girls and women. “All they ever do is design themselves for people to like them,” she said. “And what comes along with that? Eating disorders. And is the reason we don’t have any social media in our house.”
Miss Winslet said that she had warned her 15-year-old daughter Mia about the perils of social media when she had asked her mother if she could open an account on picture-sharing website Instagram like her friends.
She said she urged her daughter to keep her pictures as private memories. “The second you share that memory, that’s not your memory any more. You’ve given it away,” she told her. Miss Winslet, who also has two sons, Joe, 11, and Bear, 23 months, told the Sunday Times she makes it clear to her eldest children that access to the internet is limited. Referring to her eldest son, she said: “He’ll have to go on my iPhone to do it and he’ll know he only has ten minutes.”
Urging parents to take back control, she said: “Take the device out of their hand. Don’t let them sleep with it. Play Monopoly. These things are not rocket science.”
She added: “When they want to go up to their room for an hour ... know what they’re doing. And put parental controls in place.”
Daily Mail