‘Dani is just a higher-profile example of someone who hasn’t grown up’

WATCHING Playboy model Dani Mathers crying in self-pity during a TV interview, I was reminded of a child who bursts into tears when getting a row - sad, not at what they did, but that they got caught.

The 30-year-old was ordered to carry out community service as punishment for posting on Snapchat a naked picture of an elderly woman getting changed in the gym, with the words: “If I can’t unsee this, then you can’t either.”

In-between sobs, she explained she’d been forced to go into hiding – in other words, she went to stay with her mum – after her body-shaming stunt backfired and people called the ugly deed out for what it was.

She sniffed: “To hide out at my mother’s house at age 30 because of something I’ve done, it just felt really low.” I’ll say. In fact, the whole thing felt really low. It’s the behaviour I would expect of a teenager, not of a grown woman.

But is it indicative of something wider that’s going on? This love that people have on social media for poking fun at others to make themselves look and feel better.

The type of behaviour that once only really went on in the classroom now seems to have been given a new lease of life in digital form.

It’s been said so many times now that it has actually become accepted that young people take longer to mature these days.

There are countless articles online talking about 30 as the new 21, pointing to the number of adults in their 20s still living with their parents. In some ways, I think it’s a nice thing that you can keep shirking responsibility and feeling like a kid for longer. But thoughtless, selfish

behaviour like Dani’s is an example of a woman who should have been old enough to know much better, but still thought it was OK to act like a 12-year-old. We’re living longer so it makes sense that kids can take a bit more time to mature and stake out their place in the world. But the things that appear on social media each day – the vacuous selfies, endless YouTube make-up tutorials and nights out in bandage dresses – there’s something wrong with it. Dani Mathers is just a higher-profile example of someone who hasn’t grown up. The perennial Playgirl who wakes up on her 30th birthday wondering why people don’t find her behaviour cute any more. No, this is not every young person. I know plenty of people in their 20s who are mature, determined and focused. But, as a parent, I do think it’s one to keep an eye on.