Emma and Matt Willis reveal fears over their children’s access to online images of violence and suicide
PERCHED on their sofa scrolling through Tiktok, Emma and Matt Willis are shown videos of suicide and violence against women that turn their blood cold.
It’s horrifying for Emma and Matt as adults, but it’s even more shocking to realise they are images actively targeted at children.
As part of a powerful new Channel 4 documentary looking at the impact of smart phones on children, the husband and wife TV presenters carry out an experiment to see what youngsters are really viewing online.
After setting up a new profile on the platform and stating they are 13 years old, they start scrolling - and the algorithm quickly sends them horrific videos.
Matt, who has three children with Emma, said: “It feels so dark. I’d be worried about our kids consuming this stuff.”
“Within just four hours two supposed 13 year olds were served numerous videos showing suicide adoration and extreme violence.
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“How is this allowed to happen? Surely if you put your age in at the beginning they should be sending you age appropriate videos?
The Voice host Emma is adamant their children - Isabelle, Ace and Trixie - won’t have access to TikTok.
She said: “I mean, there’s not a chance they are having it.
“Even though you think you’re across everything, things can still slip through the net no matter how cautious you are.
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“You hear stories about what can be found on there but finding and searching for something is very different from it being served to you the first time you go on there as a 13 year old.”
In the two part series called Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones, the pair join forces with The Stanway School in Colchester and challenge a group of Year 8 pupils – and themselves – to give up their smartphones completely for 21 days.
As part of the process they not only discover some of the horror images that can be easily accessed - with tragic consequences - they also see how the youngsters often suffer withdrawal symptoms on a par with an addict being denied class A drugs.
Like millions of parents across the country, the Willis home is a daily battle ground over how much time their kids are allowed to use their smart phones.
The duo admit their daughter Isabelle got her first device when she was 11 and confess that it changed their relationship with her almost overnight.
Their son Ace also has a smart phone but so far they’ve stopped their youngest, Trixie, from getting one.
Matt said: “For me and Emma, being on our smart phones is part of our job. But it’s how much time our kids spend on their smart phones that has got us worried.
“We’re going through it with our kids and we have no idea how to navigate this.
“We’re worried, we’re scared, everything we’re seeing is negative, but we don’t know how to stop it.
“Our daughter was 11 when she got a smart phone, it’s been the biggest disruptor between us and her, I feel like I lose her to it quite a bit. I miss her.
“The only reason that we ever have any kind of bickering in our house is because of that.”
Emma added: “We never allow them to have social media. Then when she was 14 she had been begging for a long time and we were like, ‘you can have snap chat’.
“And she’s literally on it all the time.
“There are times when I definitely feel like I’ve lost them. Personally for me, I wished I’d never given them a smart phone.”
In Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones, the experiment, conducted in conjunction with The University of York, saw the pupils have their behavioural changes monitored.
They underwent tests at the beginning of the three week period, and at the end, to see what effects giving up your phone really has on their brains including sleep and attention.
And they speak to the kids about their experiences online, with one young girl revealing she was left with anxiety after speaking to another school girl online for months only to discover it was a man she’d been talking to all along.
Emma Willis' TV Timeline
2002-2003 - MTV UK
2002-2003 - Total Request Live UK
2007-2008 - I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! NOW
2008-2014 - The Hot Desk
2010 - Live From Studio Five
2010 - The Real Hustle
2010 - Big Brother's Little Brother
2011-2015 - Big Brother's Bit On The Side
2013 - Prize Island
2013-2018 - Big Brother/Celebrity Big Brother
2014-present - The Voice UK
2015 - Reality Bites
2015 - Prized Apart
2018-present - Emma Willis: Delivering Babies
2019-2021 - The Circle UK
2021-present - Cooking With The Stars
2023-present - Love Is Blind UK
Revelations like that are any parent’s worst nightmare and for Matt and Emma not knowing exactly what their children have access to is terrifying.
Matt said: “Having the world at your fingertips is f***ing terrifying. And the stuff we found out, every area we went into, every single area was devastation, you know, we’re heading towards really bad stuff.
“My biggest fear is the influence of it on them because as a parent, you feel like you have one job and it’s the biggest job of your f***ing life.”
Emma added: “And it’s the only job you give a shit about.”
Matt continued: “Yeah, I take it more seriously than anything I’ve ever done in my life.
“And now there’s something else now that is influencing them.
“The kids we saw in the doc, they’re spending more time on their phones than they are at school, that’s shocking.
“What are they consuming and how are they understanding it?”
For Emma she admits not being fully aware of what her children have access to online has left her feeling like she’s “failing as a parent”.
She said: “How are they navigating it when they’re too young to maybe even process what they’re seeing?
“I think that’s my biggest fear, is that there is zero real regulations about what is served, how algorithms are working.
“And the way certain things are made.
“They might be watching a video and they’ve got headphones in, you look at it and you’re like, ‘oh, they’re just on Minecraft’.
“But actually it’s that video, but they’re listening to a 911 call of a kid who’s watching something severe happen.
“You just think they’re on that game, which is okay for them to be on.
“Once you get into this, it’s just a nightmare and a barrage of panic. I can’t help but feel like I’m failing as a parent when it comes to online use.”
The problem most parents have is that they’re as addicted to their phones as their kids.
And for someone who has suffered addiction to drink and drugs throughout his life, Matt admits he hadn’t considered his phone use seriously until filming this documentary.
He explained: “The word addiction gets batted around quite a lot when it comes to phones and I found that a bit weird for someone who’s a recovering drug addict.
“But when I think about it, I am addicted to my phone. When I’m without it, I crave it. When I’m not on it, I think about it. I act the same way about this device as I have about substances in the past.”
Shockingly, medics in the documentary reveal the long term use of devices on kids’ brains is similar to adults with substance abuse and addictions as the grey matter in the brain changes.
Matt explained: “That’s what was so shocking. I know about that because I didn’t realise it was called grey matter, but they talked a lot about that with me.
“I had so many tests done to me where my liver was f**ked and my brain was affected, you know, you hear about ‘wet brain’ in alcoholics and stuff like this is because of grey
matter being depreciated, so it’s a real thing.
“We met a family GP who’s done lots of studies about kids who are coming in from a very young age having just been given an iPad to watch.
“And we did that, you know, we’ve done that at meal times in a restaurant, to kind of get through a meal, and it’s affecting development.
“There’s so many kids that are non verbal, so many kids that aren’t able to interact with humans. It’s such a bigger, bigger thing.”
After locking not just their phones but all their devices in a box at school it soon becomes clear that some of the kids are struggling.
One boy even shows physical signs of withdrawal which Matt confesses is similar to that of a drug addict.
He said: “If I’m honest, I was a bit elitist in my addiction. I was a bit like, ‘well it’s not as bad as mine’. But really I saw it in these kids.
“When I talked to the kids, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a withdrawal symptom. That’s a category A withdrawal you’re experiencing there’.
“That’s crazy.”
Emma added: “You see it with one of the kids in the documentary, he has physical withdrawal.”
In heartbreaking scenes the pair meet parents who have lost their children to suicide after watching things online.
In one case a little boy had been looking at videos of a Japanese suicide forest, a real life area called Aokigahara where people go to take their life. Shortly after he took his own.
And meeting his mother has had a haunting impact on Emma and Matt leaving them determined to raise the alarm to stop other families suffering.
Matt said: “The stories that we heard, I think about them all the time, they never go.
“As parents we can kind of go, ‘our kids won’t see that, they won’t search that out’.
“But it’s not a choice, if you have this device in your pocket there is a very good chance you’re going to be sent something or see something that’s going to alter the trajectory of
your life. That is so harrowing.
“I don’t see any way of dealing with this without tougher age restrictions, otherwise we’re like, ‘Oh well, that’s the world we live in now. Let’s keep destroying kids’.
“That can’t be the excuse, it’s not good enough.”
Emma added: “Really tech companies need to stand up and take accountability. It’s a multi-pronged approach.
“Parents and schools can only do so much. It’s Government and tech companies that need to stand up and make those changes happen.
“Why should kids be banned from using a device that could help their lives?
“What they should have is something that’s safe for them to go to and the only people who can do that are those people.
“What we can do is put the pressure on.”
In the documentary, a representative for TikTok said:“TikTok is a 13+ platform, with robust built in protections like default private accounts, a restricted content experience, a 60-minute daily screen time limit, and tools that let parents guide their teen’s activity and content.
“Through programs…we’re also helping families set healthy boundaries and teaching teens how to stay safe online.
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“We’re always working on new ways to make TikTok a secure, positive space…”
Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones is available to watch and stream on Channel 4 on Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm.