Drew Barrymore Reveals Reason She's Not Ready for Her Kids to Have Phones: 'Going to Become the Parent I Needed'

Mar. 15, 2025

Drew Barrymore.Photo:Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Drew Barrymoreis opening up about her thoughts on letting her daughters have cellphones and sharing how her own upbringing has impacted her feelings.

On Friday, Aug. 30, the actress, 49, shared a lengthy post onInstagramtitled “Phone Home,” in which she discussed her childhood experience with “no guardrails” and how she’s providing more guidelines for her daughters Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10, whom she shares with ex Will Kopelman – especially when it comes to having a phone.

Barrymore explains that she gave into the pressure and got her older daughter her first cell phone for her 11th birthday, “only to be used on weekends and for a limited time with no social media.”

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What Barrymore ended up discovering through this “experiment,” is “simply that I am not ready either to allow my kids to have a phone,” and so she took Olive’s phone away. The decision was “not because she did anything wrong, but because it was not time yet,” she said.

“Remember mychildhood? How are we allowing kids to just have this much access? For brains that are not fully developed? And group texts?” the mom of two asked.

“These texts can get so toxic,” she added, “and we must protect our children from being put in scenarios where they cannot always control the rhetoric of the multiple-party dynamics that get put on record on a cloud only to potentially haunt them one day.”

In today’s digital-first world, Barrymore shared that, “most of all, I want to let parents know that we can live with our children’s discomfort in having to wait. We can be vilified and know we are doing what we now know to be a safer, slower, and scaffolded approach.”

In trying to move forward and create a safer solution, Barrymore said she has done “deep research,” including having conversations with developmental physiologists, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and employees at Apple like Jony Ive, “who designed the iPhone.”

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Drew Barrymore.Taylor Hill/WireImage

Taylor Hill/WireImage

Barrymore continued, sharing, “I am going to become the parent I needed. The adult I needed,” she urged, “and I want to have the voices in my head saying, ‘I’m trying … I’m trying.’ Because that’s all we can do.”

“Try to figure this all out, for ourselves and those we are designated to take care of,” she continued. “Maybe the kids will become the model of balance and take ownership in knowing they are doing something powerful.”

“If only they had that ideal device.”

source: people.com