Breaking the kids’ toys

ANY parent sick of trying to prise their children’s gadgets from their grip can surely sympathise.

TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has revealed she smashed up her sons’ iPads in front of them after they continued to play video games beyond the time period she had permitted.

The mother of Bay Atlas, 12, and Oscar Hercules, 10, said she went to extreme lengths when the boys refused to stop playing the online games Fortnite and PUBG – both of which have caused concern over addiction levels among youngsters.

Allsopp, 47, told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show: “This is the first time I’ve said this publicly. In June I smashed my kids’ iPads – not in a violent way. I actually banged them on the table leg.”

Explaining her reasons, she added: “There is a game called Fortnite and another, PUBG, and I decided that we had made all sorts of rules and all sorts of times when we said you can’t play them, and all those rules got broken. In the end I said, ‘Right that is it, I have to physically (break them)’.”

Allsopp has previously insisted she will not let her children have smartphones as she is worried about the “damaging” effects of social media. They will have to make do with a basic Nokia model.

She said: “Teenagers are vulnerable, their brains are developing. We (adults) know we can get entangled in social media.”

Last month, Allsopp revealed to Prima magazine that she plans to leave her rumoured

£16 million fortune to her children so they can “do what they like” in their careers. She said: “If they want to be a teacher, midwife or research scientist, I want them to be able to do that.”

However, she insisted she “wouldn’t give them a penny” if they decided not to work at all. – Daily Mail