Hannah: My fear as son sneaked out to meet online ‘friend’
SCOTS actor John Hannah has spoken of the ‘terrifying’ moment he discovered his son had sneaked out of the house to meet someone he had only met online.
In a stark warning to other parents, Hannah described the influence of social media on his children, saying it is ‘impossible’ to know exactly who they are talking to over the internet.
The Four Weddings and a Funeral star revealed yesterday his 15-year-old twins had crept out of the house on separate occasions.
Luckily his son Gabriel and daughter Astrid returned home safely.
However, the 56-year-old decided to share his ‘frustration’ at trying to keep his children safe in the internet age.
Speaking to the Mirror newspaper, Hannah, who is married to actress Joanna Roth, 54, said: ‘Fortunately, there haven’t been any bad consequences from it but my daughter started it.
‘She sneaked out at two in the morning to meet her friend, her boyfriend. And we were like, “How many times do we have to tell you?”
‘Then my son realised that she had sneaked out in the night, so he sneaked out in the middle of the night to go and meet someone he’d never even spoken to before but he’d spoken to online.
‘Terrifying – and that’s everything that you’ve already warned them about.’
Speaking about their use of technology, he said: ‘God, it’s impossible. They’re more techno savvy than I ever would be.
‘We don’t want our children going out as it’s dangerous because of the knife crime and stuff like that, so we keep them in and then we expect, given this explosion of technology, they are going to sit quietly and watch Antiques Roadshow with us.
‘They’re never going to do that. They’re going to be on there playing games, looking at YouTube and talking with their friends.’
East Kilbride-born Hannah returns to TV screens as Detective Inspector Grover in the BBC crime drama The Victim next Monday.