Denise Richards regrets giving her children a phone.
The ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star has three daughters – Sam, 15, and Lola Rose, 14, whom she has with ex-husband Charlie Sheen, as well as eight-year-old adopted daughter Eloise – and has said if she could change one thing about her parenting strategy, she wouldn’t give them a smartphone.
She said: "I think the biggest mistake I made as a parent was giving my kids a phone that was not a flip phone. It is so hard to control the internet on the phone. Even putting things on there to block it, it doesn’t work, they’re smarter than us. So if I could go back and do anything over, I would definitely not give them a phone where they have access to social media and the internet."
Denise says she gave her brood phones so they could contact her in emergencies, but couldn’t believe it when they used the internet to discover her nude Playboy shoot, which she did in 2004 just months after giving birth to her eldest child.
Speaking to Dean McDermott, Nicky Paris, and Adam Hunter for their ‘Daddy Issues’ podcast, she said: "I’m honest with them. They heard that I was in Playboy. I didn’t even think that they would know what that is … [but] now kids can go on the internet and see all kinds of things.
"So having to explain that kind of stuff … but they don’t google [me]. I don’t think they want to know certain things, either, so they’ve heard bits and pieces."
Meanwhile, the 48-year-old beauty – who is now married to Aaron Phypers, who is in the process of legally adopting Eloise – recently admitted she’s a "strict" parent, after she installed security cameras outside her home to make sure her daughters don’t go out to meet boys without her permission.
She said: "I think that my daughters will tell you that I’m a strict parent. I definitely have rules and boundaries and there’s consequences. [I don’t let them] do whatever they want."
Denise Richards regrets giving her kids a phone
