Drew Barrymore has spoken out about being ‘shocked’ by what she found on her 11-year-old daughter’s phone – as she delivered an urgent warning to other parents about their children using ‘toxic’ social media.
The actress, 49, also reflected on her ‘messed up’ childhood in a lengthy post shared to her Instagram account on Friday.
She admitted that she was subjected to ‘plenty of hedonistic scenarios’ as a kid at parties and inside her own home.
But she said she was using the pain that she endured when she was younger as inspiration for what not to do when it comes to raising her daughters, Olive, 11, and Frankie, 10.
In addition, the E.T. alum shared a strong message to other parents about children whose ‘brains are not fully developed’ using ‘toxic’ social media.
Drew Barrymore posted a warning to moms who ‘allows kids’ to have access to the internet. She’s pictured with her kids in 2018
In a recent post to social media, Drew Barrymore revealed she’s striving to be the parent she needed when she was younger (pictured ex-husband Will Kopelman and their two daughters)
‘I wished many times as a kid that someone would tell me no,’ she wrote. ‘I wanted so badly to rebel all the time, and it was because I had no guardrails.
‘I had too much access and excess, and eventually, “no” actually became a challenge.
‘I would not accept it because I had so much autonomy at a young age that I simply couldn’t accept authority of any kind.’
Drew previously revealed that her mother, Jaid, an aspiring actress who managed her career, would take her out to Hollywood parties and nightclubs when she was little, and that she even let her drink alcohol and do drugs as a kid.
She continued in the Instagram post, ‘I was around plenty of hedonistic scenarios at parties and even in my own home where the viewing was of highly sensitive natures and caused my tremendous shame.
‘We, as kids, are not meant to see these images. And year, I was even a big exhibitionist when I was young due to these environments I was in.
‘Kids are not supposed to be exposed to this much. Kids are supposed to be protected. Kids are supposed to hear no.’
Drew said she ‘ended up in an institution’ at age 13 for ‘two years,’ which she branded as a ‘blessing.’
The actress, 49, reflected on her ‘messed up’ childhood in a lengthy post shared to her Instagram account on Friday
Drew Barrymore became an on-screen star at age seven thanks to Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (pictured) but she believes her mother also ‘exploited her’
Drew’s mother took the youngster to parties and nightclubs – she had her first drink at nine, smoked pot at 10 and started using cocaine at 12
‘I wished many times as a kid that someone would tell me no,’ Drew wrote in a heartfelt message to Instagram
‘[It was] a hard-core style of a reset. It made me appreciate everything,’ she added.
‘And since there isn’t a time machine to go back and redo anything, I will keep loving my journey.’
Drew recalled ‘wanting to disappear from the planet and never show her face again’ when she got sent to the institution and it was splashed all over the news.
But she said she got through it by putting ‘one foot in front of the other,’ and hopes it will act as a learning lesson to her kids.
‘I have my own baggage from my life experiences but is it an asset? Am I more equipped to be asking these questions for my family because I know things?’ she wrote.
‘Can our painful and powerful life experiences lead us to strengths? I hope so.’
Drew described what she went through as a ‘butterfly net to capture the understanding of what young girls need.’
She stressed the importance of implementing ‘guardrails’ on technology to protect children.
‘Remember my childhood? How are we allowing kids to just have this much access?’ she questioned.
‘For brains that are not fully developed? And group texts? These texts can get so toxic.
‘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.’
She said she hoped someone would make a device that had ‘so many of the amazing aspects of artistic and inspiring innovations without the pitfalls of social media.’
‘What if someone could make a tangible solution I could give to my kids so I could protect them the way I wanted to be protected,’ she continued.
‘I want to not only protect my kids, but I also want to be able to point to a solution with other parents.’
By the time Drew was 13 years old, she had already gone drug rehabilitation treatment twice and was entered into a psychiatric institution for 18 months
Drew said she had spent the last two years ‘applying herself to this cause,’ and that it now ‘occupies all of her heart and soul.’
She revealed that she had done ‘deep research’ and ‘spoke with developmental physiologists’ about the impact of phones on children.
She also admitted that she got her daughter a phone for her 11th birthday, but was left ‘shocked’ when she read through her text messages three months later.
While she didn’t disclose what was in the messages, she said she decided to ‘print out every single text’ and handed her daughter a ‘stack of pages’ to teach her a lesson.
‘I handed her a stack of pages and said, “This is not a black void that these travel to. They’re permanent somewhere [even if] we don’t see it,”‘ Drew shared.
She ultimately took the phone away, and called it an ‘important experiment for both of them.’
‘Most of all, I want to let parents know that we can live with our children’s discomfort in having to wait [for a phone],’ the actress stressed.
‘We can be vilified and know we are doing what we now know to be a safer, slower, and scaffolded approach.
‘[If] my kids are angry with me, I do not go back on my rules. Rather than trying to fix it for them, I can let my kids experience that discomfort and figure out how to cope and work through it.’
‘I am going to become the parent I needed,’ she concluded. ‘The adult I needed.’
Drew started modeling when she was only two years old, and by the time she was seven, she was a huge star thanks to her role in the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie E.T..
But she previously revealed that she had her first drink when she was only nine – and that she was using cocaine by the time she was 12.
Her mom eventually sent her to a psychiatric institution when she was 13, where she spent 18 months, and at age 14, after leaving the center, she became emancipated from her parents.
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