Parenting in the modern age undoubtedly means that one day you will have to have a conversation with your children about social media and smartphones: when is the right time to allow your little ones to access them? What are the boundaries when it comes to technology and the internet?
Drew Barrymore is one of the many parents who worries about her children when it comes to social media and the internet. Having always been particularly private about her daughters Olive and Frankie, she is especially protective of her little ones.
Now, the actress has "put myself out there as a parent" in a "very vulnerable way" to share her worries with the world, particularly comparing the conundrum to her own tumultuous childhood.
"I wished many times when I was a kid that someone would tell me no. I wanted so badly to rebel all the time, and it was because I had no guardrails," she explained in an emotional Instagram post, continuing that because of the "access and excess," eventually hearing no became a challenge.
It was this inability to accept authority that led her to be institutionalized for two years, which she called a "blessing" and a "hard-core style of a reset."
She described how, despite leading an incredibly adult lifestyle from an early age, there were still "regulated rules," whether that was not being able to see an R-rated movie or explicit media. While she was still exposed to much of this due to her "hedonistic" lifestyle, she explained that the internet has changed exposure to these materials massively.
She weighed up this experience with that of her 10-year-old and 12-year-old daughters, who could easily access any aspect of the world via the internet.
"Now that I am a mother, I cannot believe I am in a world that now correlates to my own personal pitfalls and many of my peers who got into too much, too soon." She continued. "Kids are not supposed to be exposed to this much. Kids are supposed to be protected. Kids are supposed to hear NO."
Drew explained that even she felt the pressure to get daughter Olive a phone on her 11th birthday, which was "only to be used on weekends and for a limited time with no social media," but even then she was shocked by the "data of the texts and the behavior."
"Lives depended on the phone. Happiness was embedded in it. Life source came from this mini digital box," Drew explained.
The mom-of-two came to the realization that she wasn't ready to let her daughters have a phone as a result.
Other parents took to the comments to chime in their own similarities with Drew's parental concerns.
"Yes and amen. My 14 year old has had a 'dumb phone' for the last month and I’m dreading giving him back his real phone," one parent commented. "He’s a completely different person with it. We will be doing so with much stricter regulations than we already had on it (and we’re already the “most strict” of his friends from what he tells us)."
Another added: "Yes!!!! Love this Thank you for putting this out there! More parents need to hear this and know it is ok!! Kids need boundaries!"
"This is so honest, raw and thoughtfully written," a third commented with a number of clap emojis. "I believe so many of us feel the same way...unsure of our surroundings in this overwhelming tech driven world."