Keira Knightley has revealed she has banned social media in her house to save her kids from the evils of the internet.
The actress, 40, who shot to fame in Bend It Like Beckham aged just 16, has two children, Edie, nine, and five-year-old Delilah with her husband James Righton.
She has just written a children’s book and opened up about her fears for her kids being glued to devices while promoting the new venture.
She revealed on Radio 4 this week: ‘I find it very terrifying because they are unregulated spaces, and once children are in unregulated spaces, these are the ones I want to protect them from.
‘So, in our house, we’ve got a no social media thing. They are not allowed on devices if we can’t see what they are looking at, then they are not allowed on them.
‘I don’t know if that’s right, you know. How long can I keep that going? I don’t know!
Keira Knightley has revealed she has banned social media in her house to save her kids from the evils of the internet
The actress, 40, who shot to fame in Bend It Like Beckham aged just 16, has two children, Edie, nine, and five-year-old Delilah with her husband James Righton (seen together)
‘We are at one of the schools that is doing that social media-free childhood – where the parents mostly do the same thing.
‘So, I think most of the parents at the school – there was a big push and most of us agree that that’s the way forward we want to go, but obviously not everybody, because it is an issue that divides lots of people.
‘So, you try and go ‘okay, at this play date, what are you doing to see, what are you not doing to see?’ And it’s great to have a group of parents where you can be open and you can have those conversations, and that’s what you hope, but obviously that’s not the case everywhere.
‘I think that is the case at our school more, in that particular year group, but I think, again, it could change from year group to year group.
‘I would love though, if some regulation came in so it wasn’t all put on the parents, though.’
This isn’t the first time Keira has spoken about her parenting decisions.
Last year she admitted that she’s backtracked on her controversial choice to ban her daughters from watching Disney films because she considered them to be too patriarchal.
In 2018, she made headlines over her shock decision to ban them from the movies and there was huge backlash to her revelation
She has just written a children’s book and opened up about her fears for her kids being glued to devices while promoting the new venture
At the time she said it didn’t sit well with her that because the female characters are always ‘rescued by men’.
But in a candid interview with Vanity Fair where she discussed her parenting style last year she said her firm former rule has now gone out the window.
She said: ‘Yeah, Covid ruined all my ideas. Edie, the older one, has watched everything.’
Keira added that her eldest is already aware of calling out the old fashioned gender stereotypes in some of the Disney films.
She said: ‘Oh yeah, she’s big on that. She’s got the feminist point. She totally did go like: ‘Why is it always the princess who gets rescued by someone?’.
‘And I replied: ‘Because it has been written back then, and it’s completely ridiculous since you’re gonna save yourself’.
She also spoke to the publication about what kind of mother she was – saying she is ‘very loving’ but that she does occasionally like all parents shout.
Keira explained: ‘I can get angry. It’s a shame, isn’t it?, but you know, I’m a human being, and sometimes I’m gonna shout. When I do, though, I always try to apologize, so that they learn that it’s ok to say sorry and that we still love each other.’
In 2018 Keira revealed she banned her daughter Edie from watching Disney classics Cinderella and Little Mermaid because the characters are ‘rescued by men’.
During an appearance on Ellen, the screen star proved to be every inch the doting mother as she insisted she would support her daughter in ‘anything she wants to do’ with her future career.
She also said: ‘She’s banned from watching Cinderella, as the film is about waiting around for a rich guy rescue her – no, rescue yourself!
‘She’s also banned from watching Little Mermaid – do not give your voice up for a man! But I do love the songs’, she added.
