A no from them! The celeb parents who banned their kids from social media

Social media has become the one stop shop to keep up to date with everyone and everything including our favourite stars. But some celebs are putting a stop to their children using such sites, including former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. The 48-year-old star recently shared her worries about her and David Beckham’s daughter, Harper Seven, joining social media. Victoria expressed her concerns over how body shaming has become the norm on the sites and worried over how this may affect her daughter.

Mayim Bialik made her small screen debut back when she was a teenage appearing in the hit NBC show ‘Blossoms’, and so knew from an early age what growing up in the public sphere was like. Mayim has two sons Miles, 16, and Frederick, 13, with her ex-husband, Michael Stone, and she chooses to keep everything about them private and they do not have active social media presences. While ‘The Big Bang Theory’ star has made reference to them on her own YouTube channel, she prefers to shield them from the spotlight.

'Friends' legend Matt LeBlanc is one of the most famous stars in the world, but he likes to keep his life private and is passing that onto children. He and his ex-wife Melissa McKnight - whom he divorced in 2006 - have daughter Marina together, and they have taught her the same values. Matt and Melissa don’t appear to let Marina have social media accounts, and so little is known about their teenage daughter.

Hugh Jackman adopted his two kids, Oscar and Ava, in 2005 and has chosen to keep them hidden from public view for most of their lives, teaching them the importance of valuing their own privacy. This has included restricting them from being present on social platforms. Although his eldest child is now 22, it appears Hugh’s teachings were impactful as son Oscar still shields his life away from potential followers.

Matilda Ledger - the daughter of Michelle Williams and late actor Heath Ledger - was bound to find herself facing interest from the public having two famous faces as her parents. Heath sadly died a few years after her birth, and Michelle has made a conscious effort to keep her daughter off social media sites. Despite being of an age where most kids adore sharing what they are up to online, Matilda, 17, instead keeps herself to herself and limits what the public get to see of her.

Award-winning actress Julia Roberts told The Sun newspaper in 2019 that shooting her role in ‘Ben is Back’ influenced her parenting style. She played the role of a mother of a teenage junkie and admitted it’s made her a lot stricter when it comes to her own three kids. She said at the time: “I try to keep them off social media, because I don’t really understand what they need that for right now.” She added: “It’s interesting trying to raise kids in this day because it’s all so new — the pressures, the resources, having the world in your hand like that.”

Nicole Kidman is another celebrity mother whose been cautious when it comes to her kids and social media. She opened up on her opionion in an interview with Vanity Fair admitting she doesn’t care if it makes her "unpopular" to ban her kids from Instagram. "She told the publication her reasoning for keeping them off the site is to protect them, attempt to create boundaries and to keep them grounded.

Whilst her daughter may still only be young, tennis star Serena and her Silicon Valley husband Alexis Ohanion have expressed their plans to limit her screen time and social media usage for when she gets older. Speaking to CNBC, Alexis said: "It's really important that she gets time to just be with her thoughts and be with her blocks and be with her toys, so we'll be regulating it pretty heavily.”

It was only recently that legendary actress Angelina Jolie joined Instagram herself, having previously shunned the social media app in the past. However, she only really uses the account to share content from her charitable endeavours and to encourage her followers to do the same and it appears as though her lack of online presence has travelled down to her and ex-husband Brad Pitt’s kids. None of the Jolie-Pitt brood appear to have public accounts on social media and this is likely to be because of their parents' influence.

While supermodel Heidi Klum is not overtly strict on her children using social media she has put a few boundaries in place for her eldest daughter. Leni, her daughter, has private accounts just for her to share content with her friends. Heidi also revealed Leni has to show her the photos she wants to post online before she does so. She revealed: "They're all getting sexier and sexier, and I feel like there's a time and place and a certain age group when you can do that for yourself, so sometimes she shows me photos and I'm like, 'Eh, maybe not that one, show me other photos'. "Even though it's just her friends, you never know who they could send it to."

In a conversation with ‘Vogue Australia’, Victoria Beckham discussed the difficulties surrounding parenting, particularly her youngest daughter, Harper Seven. She said: “Harper isn't on social media, so we don't have to worry about that just yet. But seeing how cruel people can be, yes it really does [concern me]." She added that Harper, 10, is at the age “where her body is going to start changing". She explained: "It's about making sure that we communicate a lot as a family and she surrounds herself with nice friends. But it is quite terrifying, I can't lie." She also admitted to Harper being more conservative than her. Recalling a chat about Harper discovering pictures of Victoria in the Spice Girls, she said: "She actually said to me recently, 'Mummy, I've seen some pictures of you when you were in the Spice Girls and your skirts were just unacceptable. They were just too short.' "