In a recent interview on BBC Radio 4, Keira Knightley opened up about the social media rules she’s set at home for her kids.
The actor shares 10-year-old daughter Edie and 6-year-old daughter Delilah with her husband, musician James Righton, and in the episode, Keira revealed that they live by a “no social media” rule in their home — at least, without proper supervision.
“I find it very terrifying because they’re unregulated spaces,” she said of the internet. “And I think for children, unregulated spaces are ones I want to protect them from.”
She continued, “So in our house, we’ve got a no social media thing. They’re not allowed on devices if we can’t see what they’re looking at…”
“It causes so much developmental damage,” one person shared, as another emphasized her children’s young ages.
Others, however, didn’t think the ban was a good idea.
“I read arguments that this isn’t a good idea,” one person said. “At some point they will be exposed to social media. If they have no training and exposure to it with parental guidance and then suddenly get full exposed, say at 18. Then they might be totally naive and be more likely to get superior extorted. Parents don’t have an easy simple obvious path to take here they are kinda damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”
“As a parent I disagree with this approach,” someone shared. “But I’m tech savvy enough to set up whitelists for what my son can access, and at 10 he’s smart enough to understand. He technically has a smartphone, in that we call it his, but he has time limited access to it and will either play games on it or watch YouTube, mostly to research whatever he is into at that point… My view is that allowing access, with restrictions and understanding, is the right approach, otherwise at some point he will see his mates on something, want to be involved and if allowed potentially go too far… the equivalent of not being allowed alcohol at home until 18 and then going out and getting absolutely wasted and ending up in hospital.”
“It’s better to try to teach them how to use the internet and social media responsibly,” another argued. “It probably won’t work, but keeping it from them will just make them worse when they finally get to it.”
One more person wrote, “I mean sometimes the things we do to protect our kids ends up hurting them in the long run. While hopefully social media changes for the upcoming generation, socializing online isn’t going anywhere. Teaching your kids to be responsible and understanding these tools is a way healthier approach than just abstinence.”
What do you think of Keira’s rule? Let me know in the comments.
