Emma Willis and Busted husband Matt in rare argument over children amid serious issue
Emma and Matt Willis found themselves embroiled in a rare argument while filming their new Channel 4 series. The famous couple are fronting new programme Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones, which sees the pair challenge a group of secondary school pupils in Colchester to give up their smartphones for 21 days.
The show, which began airing on 11 December, saw Matt, 41, and Emma, 48, begin to consider their own children's smartphone use and access to social media. The couple, who are parents to Isabelle, 15, Ace, 13, and Trixie, 8, discussed their eldest child's access to the internet, which prompted them to clash.
Emma appeared frustrated as her husband confessed he hadn't installed safety software onto the devices. Turning to Matt, she said: "I thought you'd done it?"
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Matt replied: "No, I didn't know how to do it." Clearly confused, Emma added: "You said you were putting them on their devices?" to which Matt said: "Did I?"
Emma and Matt confessed that their eldest child Isabelle had "begged for a long time" to be allowed access to social media, admitting they have struggled to "navigate" the situation. Matt explained: “For me and Emma, being on our smart phones is part of our job. But it’s how much time our kids spend on their smart phones that has got us worried. We’re going through it with our kids and we have no idea how to navigate this."
He continued: “We’re worried, we’re scared, everything we’re seeing is negative, but we don’t know how to stop it. Our daughter was 11 when she got a smart phone, it’s been the biggest disruptor between us and her, I feel like I lose her to it quite a bit. I miss her. The only reason that we ever have any kind of bickering in our house is because of that.”
Emma went on to reveal that their children aren't able to access social media, but she and Matt allowed Isabelle to create a Snapchat account a couple of years ago. She said: “We never allow them to have social media. Then when she was 14 she had been begging for a long time and we were like, ‘you can have Snapchat’. And she’s literally on it all the time."
Emma and Matt's two-part Chanel 4 documentary was released on Wednesday, 11 December, with both episodes available to stream via Channel 4. The show focuses on Year 8 pupils from The Stanway School in Colchester, who are challenged to give up their phones and iPads for 21 says, while being monitored by researchers from the University of York.
