BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - ‘We become more powerful and sexy in our 40s’: Eight things we learnt from Kate Winslet on Woman’s Hour
3. Kate doesn’t think children should be given smartphones at a young age
“Don't let your children have a phone if they are too young to know what to do with it,” says Kate. “It's so clearly a massive issue for parents these days, struggling with teenagers and their mental health and the addiction to telephones and the use of social media, and not knowing how to sometimes even get through to or communicate with their child. It's something that we see all the time. It's tampering with a very basic level of self-esteem. But on a bigger and darker scale, it is tampering with young people's self-esteem to the extent that they are completely losing a sense of who they are, and don't know how to communicate with not just their friends, but their families. And it's making them depressed. It's clearly making them depressed. It's obviously a huge problem.”
Given that probably most of the young will be so much better at technology than their parents, I suspect her first comment is a bit delusional. But I'm sure so many parents might like to take her path on this below, even if her being a celebrity does tend to alter matters somewhat.
5. Her own children haven’t got social media
“I don't have some magic formula,” says Kate. “I don't have a rulebook; I don't have a manual. I'm like any other parent who's made it up as I've gone along. I don't want to be accused of being a celebrity standing up on a soapbox, but it is possible to just say no. My children don't have social media and haven't had social media. There are many fake accounts out there for myself, and also my children, weirdly, so I'm told. But it's possible to just say: No, you can't have it. But you can't have it because I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to be a child, I want you to look at the clouds and not photograph them and post them on your Instagram page, and then decide whether or not the clouds are worth looking at because someone thought that they were rubbish.”
I'm sure many will know the issues surrounding such devices and of course social media, so is there no one answer and it being more about assessing one's own children - as to the benefits and deficits in their lives of owning such - even if such is just a possibility rather than just fighting the inevitable?
3. Kate doesn’t think children should be given smartphones at a young age
“Don't let your children have a phone if they are too young to know what to do with it,” says Kate. “It's so clearly a massive issue for parents these days, struggling with teenagers and their mental health and the addiction to telephones and the use of social media, and not knowing how to sometimes even get through to or communicate with their child. It's something that we see all the time. It's tampering with a very basic level of self-esteem. But on a bigger and darker scale, it is tampering with young people's self-esteem to the extent that they are completely losing a sense of who they are, and don't know how to communicate with not just their friends, but their families. And it's making them depressed. It's clearly making them depressed. It's obviously a huge problem.”
Given that probably most of the young will be so much better at technology than their parents, I suspect her first comment is a bit delusional. But I'm sure so many parents might like to take her path on this below, even if her being a celebrity does tend to alter matters somewhat.
5. Her own children haven’t got social media
“I don't have some magic formula,” says Kate. “I don't have a rulebook; I don't have a manual. I'm like any other parent who's made it up as I've gone along. I don't want to be accused of being a celebrity standing up on a soapbox, but it is possible to just say no. My children don't have social media and haven't had social media. There are many fake accounts out there for myself, and also my children, weirdly, so I'm told. But it's possible to just say: No, you can't have it. But you can't have it because I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to be a child, I want you to look at the clouds and not photograph them and post them on your Instagram page, and then decide whether or not the clouds are worth looking at because someone thought that they were rubbish.”
I'm sure many will know the issues surrounding such devices and of course social media, so is there no one answer and it being more about assessing one's own children - as to the benefits and deficits in their lives of owning such - even if such is just a possibility rather than just fighting the inevitable?
