Popular presenter Dan Walker has revealed he has strict contracts with his kids when it comes to phone and tablet usage. The former BBC Breakfast host shared the insight into his parenting with a national newspaper.
Dan, who now presents Channel 5's news programme, used the phrase "you lose it if you abuse it", when explaining to his children the rules that came with using technology. He then went on to make children Susanna, 15, Jessica, 13, and Joe, 11, all sign a contract outlining the rules.
Dan told The Times newspaper: "We are strict". He said of the contract, it's a privilege to have a smartphone and "you lose it if you abuse it". The 45-year-old admitted regularly checks the content his children are viewing.
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According to the Mirror, Dan, who is married to wife Sarah, said: "When we got them their phones, we got them to sign up to [the contract and] we had a chat. The contract is . . . there are things we expect from you in terms of what you do with it and how you use it. If you cross the line, we will take it away for a period.''
The dad also restricts device use from their bedrooms and insists phones are charged downstairs overnight. But Walker's close monitoring over his children's phone access and content is fuelled by protection after experiencing first hand the harm trolls can do as he admits to taking his families safety more serious than his own.
He said: “I often get threats of violence on social media… That is never nice. I have a family to protect and look after and I take their safety more seriously than I take my own." He also says that the recent landmark inquest of school girl Molly Russell, in which a coroner ruled for the first time that that social media had contributed to the death of a child, is a powerful sign that schools should take steps such as 'suicide prevention lessons' to be open with kids around the subject.
Writing in his new book Standing on the Shoulder: Incredible Heroes and How They Inspire Us, he explains: ''It’s a subject I often think about with my own children. How do we best arm our kids to deal with the toxic landscape they sometimes have to live in? We need to teach our children to be resilient, to realise that it’s OK to feel stressed and anxious, that it’s normal to feel worried about an exam, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or what someone has said about you.''
In the book, which is published this week, Walker has interviewed three fathers who lost their daughters to suicide and are now walking across the UK to raise awareness of the issue.
Standing on the Shoulders: Incredible Heroes and How They Inspire Us published by Headline Publishing is out on Thursday, October 13.
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