Actor Jeremy Allen White has praised the United Kingdom implementing a ban on social media, including apps like TikTok and YouTube, for children under 16.
Speaking with Variety ahead of the premiere for his final season of FX’s The Bear, White, who will also be starring in The Social Reckoning, a sequel to The Social Network, said there needs to be a correction on the use of social media for children.
“It’s remarkable how addictive this stuff is,” White said. “I think there needs to be a correction. It’s never going to go away, but I do think there needs to be boundaries or guidelines at a certain point. And I hope there is some kind of slide back into more of an analog approach in life. Because this is all moving very fast and it’s a little scary.”
White noted that his two children (ages 7 and 5) do not have phones or iPads. His comments expand upon what he told Variety’s Marc Malkin last fall that he wants keep his children away from social media for as long as he can.
Last year, British pop star Robbie Williams revealed that he banned his four children from having phones, declaring them a form of child abuse.
“They don’t have phones, they’re not going to have phones for as long as humanly possible,” he said of his children. “They are at school, other people have phones. Tough. That’s as simple as it is. I’m 51. I can’t deal with the corrosive nature of the internet, it hurts me, it ruins my day.”
“How can I give this drug to a 12-year-old? How can I give this drug to a seven-year-old? It’s abuse,” he added.
In April of that same year, actor Jason Momoa revealed that he instituted a ban on phones and television for his children.
“We don’t have a TV,” Momoa said ahead of the premiere the Minecraft Movie. “My son doesn’t even have a phone. He’s 16 and he doesn’t have a phone. We’re different. He’s going to be 18, he’s going to have a phone, he’s going to be out of the house and he can explore the world after that.”
Momoa said that he prefers his children to “use their creativity in a different way.”
“I just want them to use their creativity in a different way and so we do a lot of other things,” said Momoa.
Momoa then got more philosophical, observing that the world got along just fine before everyone had a phone.
“Everyone was doing just fine. You and I didn’t grow up with phones, so no one told me what to do and I had to find it,” he said.
Momoa did say that he and his children watch movies together as a family.