Should parents police their teens on social media?
Jamie Oliver has come out against parents who let their teenage children post sexualised photos of themselves online.
As a dad of five with two teenage daughters, 15-year-old Poppy Honey and 14-year-old Daisy Boo, he says he’s shocked by what some young girls share.
“I’m going to generalise massively here, but from my observation so far, at 13 to 14 the kind of pictures girls are putting up, just from what I have seen, are split 50/50 – normal young girl and then this weird hybrid of, dare I say it, quite porno, sort of luscious, kind of pouty lips, pushing boobs out,” he said on The Lifestyle News Hound podcast.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my god!’ I don’t even want to look at some of the things my daughter shows me.
“I’m like, ‘Really? Aren’t their parents all over that like a rash?’ We banned Daisy from doing selfies and mainly she doesn’t but a couple slip up.”
He added that he believes young people use social media as a way of validating themselves, comparing online ‘likes’ to sugar.
“It’s a quick way to get some sort of – forgive me – pat on the back or love.”
