- Penélope Cruz says her two kids, 10 and 12, don't have phones or social media accounts.
- The 49-year-old actor opened up about being a mother in an interview with Elle.
Penélope Cruz says her two kids don't have phones or social media accounts.
In an interview with Elle, the actor opened up about what it's like to be a mother to two preteens — a 10-year-old daughter, Luna, and a 12-year-old son, Leo.
Cruz says she tries to protect her kids — whom she shares with her husband, Spanish actor Javier Bardem — from the dangers of technology, admitting that they aren't on social media and "don't even have phones."
"It's so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming," Cruz told Elle. "And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked. It's a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers."
The 49-year-old actor is also fiercely protective of her children's privacy. If they want a career in the spotlight, it will be on their own terms, Cruz said.
"It's for them to decide if they are going to have a job that is more exposed to the public or not. They can talk about that when they're ready," the "Ferrari" star added.
This is not the first time Cruz has spoken about protecting her kids from the dangers of being online.
In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning in 2021, the actor shared that she's "very tough with technology" when it comes to her children.
"There is no protection for them, for brains that are still developing and how that affects the way they see themselves, how everything — like related to bullying — so many things that are not the childhood that we had," Cruz said.
"No social media until at least 16 — I really see that as protecting mental health."