The Overshare with Gemma Atkinson - No Phones Before 13? Keeping Kids Safe Online with Dr Martha

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

This special episode of The Overshare is brought to you by Tesco Mobile and goes deep into the most important issues facing parents now. When is the right time to give your child a smartphone? And how can we protect our children when the online world is all around them? Gemma is joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Martha Derious Collado, alongside two candid oversharers, Samantha and Debbie, who open up about the daily struggles—and serious scares—they’ve faced navigating online safety with their children. We explore how to build trust, set boundaries, and start honest conversations early. Because as Dr. Marta says, smartphones weren’t made for kids—but with the right tools and support, we can prepare them for the digital world. Search Tesco Mobile Online Safety for expert advice and resources to help you protect your child online. 

Children see phones as like these like super magical boxes that they're really curious about. Of course they are. We all have one. They want one too. Kind of have a bit of a daily battle with TikTok. There's nothing strict about that at nine. You're on the... Yeah, I was really surprised by your use of language. It's our responsibility to protect them. We're the bill payers for the phone, you know. We have all this responsibility and you have to step up and protect your child. Smartphones were not created for children, okay, they were created for adults, they were created as tools for work, they are basically supercharged computers in our

pocket. Hi, I'm Gemma Atkinson and this episode of The Overshare is brought to you by Tesco Mobile. They recognise how important it is to understand your kids' online world and it's that first step to keeping them safe. So they've created a bank of resources to help parents keep their children safe online with advice on starting those tricky conversations early, keeping kids away from harmful content and setting limits and much, much more. Now, I know you guys are parents as I am. So understanding these conversations is really, really important, but it's also not easy. I know that as well. We wanted to take the time

to spotlight these topics and to get an expert guest in to help you guys start that conversation that is so important to have with your children. I'm really, really excited about this, actually, because it's a conversation I'm going to have to have with my daughter soon and I'm dreading it. For more information, you can search Tesco Mobile Online Safety and find the right advice for a safer internet journey today. Our special guest, who I'm very excited to chat to. I've actually got some questions for her of my own.

And then I'll be welcoming a couple of over-sharers as well to join us and tell us their techniques for online safety with children. Dr. Marta De Rosquado is joining us today. She is a clinical psychologist, and her expertise is in parenting and pediatric health. Her specialty is helping children and their parents cope with distress.

She's got two children of her own, so she's the absolute perfect person to have this conversation with us. She's also got a book out in August, which I'm gonna ask her about as well, because it's gonna be really interesting. Welcome along. Thank you so much for joining us.

Before we meet our over-sharers, I wanted to ask you, what would you say is the right time for a child to have a smartphone? Yeah, I think that's such a common question I get all the time. The first thing I'm going to say is smartphones were not created for children. Okay, they were created for adults who were created as tools for work. They are basically supercharged computers in our pockets. And you need to have skills, ability, competence to kind of have one. And the way I always think about smartphones is a bit like driving. We don't just let kids going behind the wheel, even though they're tall enough to maybe put

their feet on the pedal. We teach them how to drive. We give them lots of skills before they go behind the wheel and they do it slowly and with support and protection so that when they're behind the wheel, they're safe to do so. And we really should be building those skills with our smartphones as well. And for me, smartphones really shouldn't be introduced till 13 at the biggest minimum plus for me. I don't know what age you are thinking of for your children. No, I agree because a lot of the apps, they have a late age limit on anyway but people just seem to overlook that because everyone at school's got them so I'll let my son or daughter have them.

Yes. And it's kind of like you wouldn't let them sit and watch an 18 rated movie just because someone else is watching it. You're going to give them nightmares, it's going to mess with them and it's the same thing with the phone. What we're going to speak to someone today who's had a bit of a safety issue with their daughter and the phone, and she now wants to monitor her daughter, rightly so. How can a parent monitor their child online

without feeling like they're invading the privacy too much? Because obviously when the teenagers, moms aren't cool at that point, are they? But how do we make sure they're okay without them thinking we're invading? So if your child goes online, whether it's on a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, they need to be in a space where you're going to be available to hear and see what they're doing. So it has to be with that kind of supervision. So for me, you have to create spaces in your home that are kind of screen

safe and then screen free zones, phone free zones. But these should be things that you embed within your home, all of you as a family, because if we want our children to come to us about what they see online and the good, the bad, whatever, we need to be open to also sharing what we do online. One of the things I've noticed, I don't know if you've noticed this too Gemma, but when I use my phone, I usually go completely quiet. It ends up being this like very private kind of, we kind of switch off. Yeah. And so children see phones as like these like super magical boxes that they're really curious about. Of course they are. We all have one. They want one too.

But if you're able to embed spaces in your home where phone use is okay, and actually you can ask me what I'm doing, you break that spell, you break the magic of what are you doing online. And then you can teach your child, this is the sofa or the dining room table or the space where you can go on a screen as long as I know what you're watching and I can supervise and hear it. So no headphones, you know, being able to like, even if you're cooking or doing something else, exactly. It's that awareness. And also do go online with your kids, like do it together so you can really see what they're seeing. And whether it's video games in particular, you know, lots of things happen on video games that are great and lots of things happens that

aren't so great. Make sure you're not just kind of deciding whether or not your kid can go online on a video game based on a feel, but actually an experience. Yeah, sit with them, play with them, experience it. So then you can say, Oh, did you see that chat box? That's not okay. That's not something you can go and click on or you shouldn't open. You can actually teach your child in like real time, which makes a huge difference. And these are all the kind of toolkits that I kind of add into my book. Because for me, smartphones are not just kind of protecting our kid and delaying smartphones, which is really key for me. But delaying means I'm going to be preparing you for it because one

day they're going to happen. But we can do both. We can delay smartphones, introducing them to our children, and we can prepare them to have the skills so that when they do, they do it in a really safe way. And that's what I try and do in my book. And what's your book called? It's called The Smart solution when and how to give your child a phone. And we can get that from August. Pre-order now available in August. Brilliant well let's get into it let's meet our first oversharer. So our first oversharer is Samantha and I believe Samantha you have a nine-year-old daughter at home, tell us your rules and regulations

around social media with your daughter. Okay, so I mean, I probably sound a bit of a strict mom, but she's not really allowed it. We kind of have a bit of a daily battle with TikTok. A lot of her friends have it. So I always get, can I have it? So-and-so's got it. And I always get, can I have it? So-and-so's got it.

And I'm like, that's lovely, but you're not having it. But bless her heart. I know why she wants it. She wants to do the dances. And we adopted our dogs from Dogs Trust, so she likes to look on there to check if any of the dogs that she loved are still there. She doesn't really want it for anything else. But I can't stop her from seeing everything else that's on there. So we've kind of come to some compromises.

So the TikTok, I've got an account and she's literally got my sisters on there. And she can do the dances, but she has to be downstairs while I'm in the room. So she does them. They don't go anywhere. she doesn't have, it's all private so she can't see anything similar. So she has got a phone, so that was another battle that we sort of had and I thought I've got to relinquish at some point because she is getting older. So she has a phone but we have quite strict communication limits on it. So we've got that she can't have a mobile number text her that isn't in her contacts. So we set it up that if a random number texts her, it doesn't come through.

So she can't actually see the message. So unless we've put the number in her contacts, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You were saying there, Samantha, you probably think you're quite strict. Marta was saying there's nothing strict about that at nine. Yeah, I was really surprised by your use of language. So I'm really curious, what makes you think you're being really strict? I think a part of it is school. So everyone has it in school. So-and-so has it, so-and-so has it. I get that all the time.

And I always come back, well, that's nice, but you haven't. Yeah, because you were saying until they're like 14, is it? You wouldn't give them a phone. Smartphones were not created for children in the first place. And even apps like the ones you've mentioned, like TikTok would say that the age restriction is 13.

She's not 13, she's nine. The fact that, you know, other kids are on it is not surprising actually, because we've got data to show that a lot of children are on TikTok. But actually they shouldn't be. And apps are not very good at limiting access for younger children and children bypass it anyway. They just change their birth date and they go on it, right? But to me at nine, not being on TikTok should be normal. That should be the norm rather than something

that's really strict. So it does surprise me that you use that language. And I am curious about how or whether you ever communicate with the other parents in your daughter's school about TikTok or any other apps that they're on that she's not allowed to get access to. Yeah, so some of the parents have done similar to what I've done and they've created the account that they can use but they can't look anything up. I don't know in terms of whether they let them search things on TikTok. So my daughter, she I don't let her scroll through anything. Like I said, she wants to look at like the Dogs Trust website. She sits with me and we'll

go through it. So she's not really allowed it on her own, if that makes sense. So I can see what you can monitor. Yeah. Yeah. Similar to if like her friends, they have like their little group chats and that. I don't let her take that upstairs and sit on it and chat. So she's like in the dining room or, and I'll often walk through and I'll say, oh, hi, so and so, whoever she's on the phone to. So they kind of know that I'm about, I think a big thing for me, it's kind of trusting her because I don't want to stop her doing everything. And then she's never gonna come to me and say,

oh mom, I want to do this or I want to do that because she thinks it's just gonna be a solid no. I think a lot of it is trust in her and she is very good at coming to me and saying, oh mom, this has come up or et cetera, et cetera. So I kind of feel that I have to give her that little bit of leeway so I don't want to completely block her all the time. My concern, and obviously you'll know this more than me, Marta, is

I don't want my daughter to have a phone till she's a lot older, and I just... For me, it's the whole, like you said, Samantha, what they will see on there, the pop-up adverts, the this, the that. But also in this day and age, I want to be able to track where she is and know where she is. And so it's kind of, can you do that on a phone that isn't a smartphone or is that not? Not really, but I'm one of those people that actually doesn't think tracking children is a good thing. Sorry, controversial opinion of the day. Firstly, because at nine, you shouldn't be tracking your child.

You should be with your child or they should be with a safe adult. They're too young. We need to really think about kind of external risk, like everyday risk and online risk in a very, very similar way. And I think the tracking just blurs it. It makes things very confusing for parents. So at nine, I don't know about either of you, I'd love to know what you would say to this, but how would you feel about your nine year old saying, I'm going to go to the park with

my friends. I'm going to cycle there by myself. I'm going to hang out for two hours and then I'll come home. Absolutely not. So why would we do something different in the digital world, which would sound like, Samantha, you're not doing this by the way, but for example, saying, I'm going to take my phone in my bedroom and I'm going to go online, which is a digital playground, right? The internet is like a playground for children. I'm going to talk to my friends, but I'm also going to talk to other people. And in a couple of hours, I'll just switch off and come back down. I think lots of parents do allow that, whether it's a smartphone or a tablet. And there's this false idea that because they're like cocooned in the safety of

your home, they're completely safe, but they're not because there are other risks that aren't physical, right? Emotional risks. I also think you can have too much of a good thing. You can over socialize. You don't know who you're socializing with. Exactly. It could be anyone at too much of a good thing. You can over socialize. You don't have to socialize with. It's overwhelming. Exactly. It could be anyone at the end of that profile picture. It doesn't have to be a little girl who they know is in the class. It could be, you know, some guy, some older woman.

They have no idea who they're talking to. I'm quite open with my little girl as well. And I sort of say, the reason why you're not allowed, I've explained to her the reason why you're not allowed TikTok or you're not allowed Instagram and we sort of go over I know you want it because of this but I say you don't know who is on there I said they could say that they are so and so friends and they go to school with your cousin but they're not so I'm quite honest with her she's quite grown up because she is around a lot of adults so I do think sometimes that plays a part because she's more grown up or she feels more grown up than maybe what her years are. So I'm quite open and honest with her that the reason why is because of X, Y and Z. So she kind of has an understanding

that she doesn't think mum's just being mean. And mum's, she will say to me sometimes, I know you're trying to look after me mum. And I think, yes, I am. And you're only not. That's true. Yeah, I think it's so important. Some of what you're doing is so great, Samantha, by the way. I think it's really important that you have safe areas in your home where screens are allowed, phones are allowed.

And then you have areas in your home that are like phone-free. But that shouldn't just be for your children. That should be like embedded as a family kind of habit because you need to be able to see and hear what your child does online. And for me, it's not just a smartphone, it's on a laptop, it's on a tablet.

You know, like you're kind of doing that already, Samantha, which is great. And if you're going to allow your child to go online, you need to go with them, a bit like you'd walk with them to the park and sit and watch them play with their friends. You need to do the same. You need to be nearby. You need to be like pretty much hand holding them. It's the same thing that we would do with anything else with our children. Like we teach them how to do it. We go beside them while they do it. We keep them safe. If we see something

that isn't quite right, we help them, we guide them. And then eventually when they're old enough, they'll do it independently, hopefully in a safer way than they would have without us. They do absorb everything. And it's even like, even as us as adults, if we keep seeing negative news or information, you start feeling that way. And I think for a child as well, when their brains are still developing, hormones are kicking in, the last thing they need is then the blue light in the face all the time. Yeah, absolutely. You know, as well as taking in all this other information.

And you know, I worked with a 13 year old who came into my clinic room because she had a lot of anxiety and it was getting in the way of her life in lots of ways. But one of the conversations that came up and we worked on was she had a smartphone and she was getting in the way of her life in lots of ways. But one of the conversations that came up and we worked on was she had a smartphone and she was 13, not nine. And one of the things that came up for her was that her parents had very strict boundaries about you switch off your phone at six and then you get it back in the morning.

But in the morning, she would have over 200 WhatsApp messages every single morning, 200, over 200. And she had felt the need to read them all before school because otherwise she was like, I'll be missing out. Now, as an adult, I think that's overwhelming for me. Like I can't keep up with the PTA WhatsApp. No, it's awful, isn't it? I have six school WhatsApps and some of them are just on mute and I only check them when I need to. And look at the essentials and the rest just goes. But that's not how children or young teenagers behave. They want to absorb all that information and they haven't got

the emotional or the intellectual capacity to do it. It's too much for them. So no wonder they feel really anxious. Well, I think a part is with my daughter, I find it's kind of like a novelty. So craves and craves, she really wanted a phone. And I mean, blessed, she chats to like my sister, so her aunties and that, and some of her friends. But sometimes that phone sits on the side and it dies and she charges it and it dies and it charges and she doesn't actually use it. So I think it was a novelty item that she kind of felt she needed but actually once she got it she didn't need it because I said well who else are you going to talk to? She went well I'll talk to my auntie and I said

okay and who else? So there's a couple of friends that they sit and face some evening together but otherwise the novelty of it I mean they've got a group between her cousins and she'll get 990 plus messages because she hasn't read them because she hasn't been on it it's just died and she's recharged it and it's died and she's recharged it because she doesn't actually use it she doesn't need it. So it's kind of just sat on the side. And I think once my sister said to me, she said, Oh, no, she's replied to me. And I said, Oh, right. I texted her a month ago. And she replied to me a month ago, because she she hadn't bothered to even use it. So I think sometimes

it's a novelty. And I think school plays a big part because I think we sort of had a conversation about somebody at school may say they have something, but it doesn't actually mean that they do. A lot of people will say, oh, we've got the latest iPad, iPhone, whatever. But actually they don't. I think it's just maybe they say it. So I think that novelty wore off. And I said, I think her phone's dead, to be fair.

I don't actually think it's got any charge at the moment. Oh, Samantha, thank you so much. and it's true what you say with school I mean I used to say to my mum such a body's mum let's say and I think she'd say well I'm not such a body's mum I'm your mum and you ain't doing it. Thank you so much and good luck with it all navigating as she grows up. It's a minefield. It is yeah and we're all kind of up something creek with no paddle. But yeah thank you so much for oversharing. Thank you have a good day. It is, yeah. And we're all kind of up something creek with no paddle. Yeah.

But yeah, thank you so much for oversharing. Thank you, have a good day. Take care. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. This episode of The Overshare is brought to you by Tesco Mobile.

They recognize how important it is to understand your kids' online world. And it's that first step to keeping them safe. So they've created a bank of resources to help parents keep their children safe online with advice on starting those tricky conversations early, keeping kids away from harmful content and setting limits and much, much more.

Now I know you guys are parents as I am. So understanding these conversations is really, really really important but it's also not easy. I know that as well. We wanted to take the time to spotlight these topics and to get an expert guest in to help you guys start that conversation. It's so important to have with your children. I'm really really excited about this actually because it's a conversation I'm going to have to have with my daughter soon and I'm dreading it. For more information you can search Tesco Mobile Online Safety and find the right advice for a safer internet journey today.

So our next guest is Debbie. Thank you so much for joining us Debbie. I believe your story, you had something happen, something quite serious happen on Snapchat with your daughter, is that right? What was the story? Yeah so when she was age 12 she was on Snapchat and other social media just as most kids were, probably the result of Covid. And you know we thought we'd got all the correct parental settings on the phone. We felt it was safe, didn't really know much, I guess we're very naive.

And she managed to take herself off ghost mode on Snapchat. And this is on the map, this is where anybody can find you and connect with you. And that's basically what happened. Oh God, I didn't even know that was a fit. I don't have Snapchat. So I'm not, I'm obviously not down with the kids as they say, but so there's a feature on that way.

There's lots of features on lots of apps where you can see your location. I mean, an app that lots of adults use is Strava and Strava has the same. If you don't disable it, everyone can see where you're running, when you set off, when you come home. And it's in real time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a risk issue. There's people who have had like robberies and all sorts through Strava, but they can find you like, yeah. But yeah,

lots of adults have Strava, less adults have Snapchat. But actually, Debbie said something really important because you said you were really naive. I think so many people will relate to what you said already because I think technology is just something that's a bit unnatural for us, like my generation of parents. Kids are so much more advanced than we are. It's a bit like, I don't know if either of you ever did this, but I remember being little and putting on the VHS on record for my mum and dad because they couldn't figure it out. So one of the things that, you know, for us to remember now is that that's our kids, right? Our kids are doing things quicker and better than we are. So taking themselves off ghost mode or, you know, actually accessing Snapchat through things like Pinterest, which you can do. So taking themselves off ghost mode or actually accessing Snapchat through things

like Pinterest, which you can do. So even if you don't download the app, you can go other routes to get to the app if you've got a smartphone. There are so many routes kids take and I think it's not just naivety, it's about informing ourselves and also sitting with our children and before they go on an app saying, I'm going to explore it. I'm going to have a look with you. I'm going to find out what you're going to see. Because otherwise, how can we know? We don't know until we experience it too. Some kids, their friends have older siblings who have already navigated the, I mean, I'm, there's a ruin joke in my house. I'm so bad with technology. Like anything that's to do

with my phone, I have to get Gork. Like anything that's to do with my phone, I have to get Gorka on the other half to do it. I didn't realize I had no room, I didn't have my iCloud on. I said to him, I don't know what this blooming cloud thing is. So I lost loads of pictures because I had not backed any of them up. I just didn't know how to do it.

So I'm completely like not good at it. But when my daughter comes to an age where she's asking for them, that is something I'm gonna have to get clued up on. For me, this conversation, the navigation of it, it starts now. Like I have a six year old and I talked to her about social media.

She asked me the other day, true story. She asked me, mommy, what does it feel like to go on Instagram? Oh wow. And she asked me that because she knows I work on Instagram. So she knows Mummy has videos. I show her sometimes. I show her.

I show her my page. And I often talk about comments that I get on my page, not necessarily all the good ones, but actually the ones that upset me. And I have these conversations at dinnertime with my husband, the same way that we might talk about what we did during the day. And it's a conversation we should be embedding in our families. You know, we ask our children, what did you do at school? Who did you play with? We should be asking all those same questions about what they do online. What, even if they don't have a smartphone, right? So what is your friends doing online? Like if you're, you know, my daughter sometimes says,

like you were saying, my friend's older sibling has an iPhone and she's much older. So she's 14 and one of them is 17. So, you know, my daughter has friends who have much older siblings. 17 is, I would kind of accept having a smartphone at that age. But I'll say to her, what did you see on it?

Did you look at it? You know, get really curious. What did you see? Oh, we watched YouTube. What did you see on YouTube? We saw some funny videos of like animals doing things. Okay. What else did you see? Oh, she plays Roblox. Okay. What happened in Roblox? You know, like I asked her, really explore it because I think, and I'm aware of this, that my daughter is probably going to see something that scares her on somebody else's phone. We need to educate our children alongside that. It's not good enough for me to say, just delay them, forget they exist because they're out in the world. Older siblings, older cousins, people at school, they're going

to see stuff, they're going to see the content. So we need to have these conversations early and, you know, skill them up the same way that we would do with anything else. I often think of it a bit like driving. We don't let, you know, 12 year olds drive a car, even if they're tall enough to kind of get their foot on the pedal. But we do teach them the rules of the road, just when they're backseat drivers or even when we're crossing the road, we might teach them skills. So they're learning as we're doing exactly. So we're preparing them. We need to do both protect and prepare, not just protect. Yeah. And what did you put in place, Debbie, when obviously this horrible thing happened

with your daughter, what have you put in place since then? Do you feel like she's safer now online? Yes. Yeah, I think first and foremost, if you're going to give your child a phone, you have the right to check it, to see what content they're looking at, to see who they're communicating with. And I've learned that if you want to look at child's phone to build respect and trust and everything else and to have open communication, ask them if you can look at their phone. Don't just say give me a phone I want to check it, because that's going to make them instantly sort of panic if there is something on there. to make them instantly panic if there is something on there. So yes, we do checks on her phone,

but also what we've learned is on Apple phones, for example, there's a family sharing center and it's basically where I can control her phone from my phone. So I can set time limits on the apps. I can set downtime on the phone so if I think she's been on it too long I can switch it off. And as long as you put the correct date of birth into the phone which we learn is paramount, then the family sharing settings can automatically be a plot, you know, we can set them up and apply them. We've also spoken to, so we've spoken to the phone manufacturer. We've spoken to our network provider, broadband provider, and all of these companies can come together and make sure all the settings are on the phone to potentially block anything. And also, oh, my daughter can't download any apps without my authority.

That's a big one, I think, as well, having that trust that they have to come to you. And so what would, before we let you go, because I know you're busy, what would your advice be to any parents now who, you know, who are thinking of letting their son or daughter go on on on social media, just to be mindful and monitor. Yeah. So I think first and foremost, social media apps are a minimum age of 13. So obviously anybody below that age really shouldn't be doing it just as with other things in the world. But check the apps yourself, because we didn't know about this Snap map. We didn't know that Roblox has a dating chat room. We didn't know that Minecraft and yeah.

Oh my god. Roblox has lots of, you know, lots of apps could have so much higher, stronger, better protections for children, but they do not. So do not rely on the apps to protect your kids. And I feel like Debbie, you've done an incredible job of building connection with your daughter, you know, building trust rather than her feeling like ashamed or, you know, like, I don't know, really upset about it all. Instead, it's allowed you to like connect with her stronger and to protect her, but she's clearly trusting you. And that's key for me because we are the number one protection for our children. Yeah. It's our responsibility to protect them. Yeah. Absolutely. It's our

responsibility to protect them. We're the bill payers for the phone, you know, we have all this responsibility and you have to step up and protect your child. And as a result of the horrific lessons that we've learnt, I'm now doing talks at work, so a lunch and learn to my colleagues at work to say this is what happened, this is what we've learnt and what we think you should do. And I'm also working with a couple of charities as well who educate children and adults in the community and in schools. They actually go into school and do talks. So I support them as well voluntarily because it's so important. It's frightening what our children can see. It is so important.

And it's kind of like times have changed now. When I was little, I used to play out. I mean, I'm 41 nearly, so it's a long time ago. But my mom used to say, come in when the street lights are on. And it was fine and we were safe and all our bikes were at the bottom of some field. But we, everyone, it was just a lovely safe place.

Now, like you were saying, they're not even 100% safe in their own room if they're online. There are safe communities online, right? But I think you need to curate them, you need to make them, build them. And you need to be old enough to understand what is and isn't safe. I think, you know, young children just don't have the capacity to understand online, you know, what that online world looks like. You know, it is like going on a digital playground, the internet, where there's all sorts of good

things and bad things, but they don't know how to manage that risk yet. And so we need to teach them. Although children are born with smartphones all around them, they don't know how to use them well. And neither do we. I think we fall into traps as well and we're like bad habits, but our kids, they do they do so in a way that puts them at harm without meaning to. Yeah, definitely. Your daughter didn't do that on purpose, right? She never meant to create that kind of risk. That's now and then the sense of them.

Exactly. Yeah. The strange thing is, is we've got a really good relationship. We've you know, we can talk openly about pretty much anything. And it's strange how the groomer got so into her head that she felt she couldn't talk to me about it. She couldn't come and tell me that she'd received pictures and that she'd been asked to send pictures. And it just the whole scenario terrified her and she just couldn't speak about it. So again, that's something that you really need to have these real conversations as well with your children. As horrible as it is, it's the shock factor I think sometimes always works.

Yeah. I really appreciate you saying that because I think it's so important for parents to know that these conversations have to happen. And if you find them uncomfortable, I would always take that as a sign, like a little clue that actually it matters to have this conversation. The same way we should be talking about sex and giving sex education. We need to be talking about this too.

Like they're really important, basically life-saving conversations for our children. Don't avoid it, just do it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story, Debbie, I really, really appreciate it. And I'm glad it's all okay now and everything's sorted. Thank you for all the sharing.

We're a few years on. Thanks a lot, take care. Thank you, you too. Oh, well, hopefully that's put a lot of your minds at rest. It's kind of reassured me a lot and the whole no phones till 13 has really hit home with me because I know a lot of my friends children have phones earlier and I've always thought oh is it a bit too early and Dr Marta has confirmed it is. So thank you so much. Thank you to Dr. Marta for listening

and for helping me and the guests. And thank you very much to our oversharers, to Debbie and Samantha. And a massive thank you to Tesco Mobile for sponsoring this episode. If you want to find out more about some of the conversations we've had today, please search Tesco Mobile online safety

and you'll find the right advice there for your safer internet journey for your children today. Enjoy the rest of your day whatever you're doing and thank you to Tesco Mobile.