Pink Explains Why She Won't Let Her 11-Year-Old Daughter Have A Phone Or Social Media Yet

Pink has long been an outspoken celebrity who has strong opinions on politics, the Covid pandemic, and parenting. In a recent interview on 103.5 KTU, she opened up a little bit about her parenting choices with her two children, 11-year-old Willow and 6-year-old Jameson. She says it's important to have open conversations with your kids from a young age because you want to teach them kindness and useful communication skills. But she also thinks it's very important to keep them off social media when they're too young to know what to do with it. That's why her firstborn doesn't have a phone or an Instagram page yet.

Pink Explains Why She Won't Let Her 11-Year-Old Daughter Have a Phone or Social Media Yet

Pink and Carey Hart, a motocross racer, have been married for almost 20 years, and they welcomed their first child, Willow, into the world in 2011. Pink has said before that she wasn't really sure she wanted to be a mother because she was afraid that she wouldn't be very good at it, but she's a hands-on parent today and loves every minute of it. When prompted about how she handles her kids' phone use, she replied, "For me, my kids don't have a phone, and my daughter's the only 11-year-old in her class that doesn't have one."

She admits that it's not easy because a lot of her friends "have their kids on TikTok," but she doesn't. "I told Willow, 'That just doesn’t move my needle. They’re not my kids. You’re my kid,'" she said. "She has a lot of eyes on her too." Pink wants to protect her privacy and make sure she has the full experience of childhood before millions of people get a look into her day-to-day life.

"She has a little watch. She can text me if she needs to get picked up a little later or sooner," Pink said. "She has all the emergency stuff. I told her, point blank, 'If you can produce literature for me from a reputable source that tells me that social media is good for you, then you can be on it. And otherwise, good luck!'" 

Pink isn't the only celebrity who has openly talked about keeping her children off social media. Kate Winslet has been adamant about this choice as well because she wants her kids to truly enjoy their life. "I want you to be a child, I want you to look at the clouds and not photograph them and post them on your Instagram page and then decide whether the clouds were worth looking at because something thought that they were rubbish," she said in an interview.

"It's tampering with sometimes a very basic level of self-esteem, but on a bigger and darker scale, it is tampering with young people's self-esteem to the extent that they are completely losing a sense of who they are, and don't know how to communicate with not just their friends, but their families, and it's making them depressed. It's clearly making them depressed. It's obviously a huge problem."

There has been more research unveiling the sad connection between teens who use social media very often and rates of depression and anxiety. Children who are online for multiple hours a day report feeling isolated and struggling to connect with people in person. It can also be a huge distraction from other important things in life, such as schoolwork, chores, and family time. Celebrities like Pink and Kate Winslet may be in the minority, as many other famous parents have allowed their children to be all over TikTok and Instagram, but they will likely be very happy with their decision as their kids grow up into young adults.