Why Penelope Cruz will not allow her kids on social media: ‘I’m very tough with technology’

Penelope Cruz is opening up about her family life with husband Javier Bardem and their two children, 8-year-old Lena and 10-year-old Leo, including a very strict rule about social media.

The 47-year-old star revealed she has “a strange relationship with social media,” admitting she uses “very little of it in a very careful way,” as she feels too much usage doesn’t make sense “and it is especially affecting younger generations.”

The actress says she doesn’t allow her kids to have social media accounts, explaining her “tough” thoughts about technology.

“It’s like, yeah, we’re going to watch movies sometimes or some cartoons. How can I not let them watch movies?” Penelope continued, “That has been, like, some incredible moments of happiness since I was a little girl. But not phones until they are much older and no social media until at least 16.”

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The actress admits she is worried about their mental health and wants to do everything she can to protect them, however she knows not everyone feels the same way. “I feel really bad for the ones that are teenagers now. It’s almost like if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them.”

“The lack of protection that it is for a 12-year-old to be involved in social media, any form of social media, there’s no protection for them, for their brains that are still developing, and how that affects the way they see themselves, everything, like, related to bullying. So many things that are not the childhood that we had,” she concluded.