Adolescence's Ashley Walters Opens Up About How The Show Has Affected His Own Parenting

Ashley Walters on the set of AdolescenceAdolescence star Ashley Walters has opened up about the impact the show has had on his own parenting.The former Top Boy actor stars as DI Luke Bascombe in the hit Netflix drama, which centres around a young boy who is accused of murdering a girl from his school after being radicalised online by the so-called “manosphere”.During a new interview with Men’s Health magazine, Ashley spoke about his youngest son, River, and how Adolescence led to him examining the nine-year-old’s relationship with technology.He explained: “[River is] an animator, so he has a lot of animation software on his iPad and spends his time doing that. But sometimes, he’s not animating, when we think he is.”“We’ve been very conscious about that and drawing back on his screen time. Half the week, he can’t even touch his device,” Ashley continued, noting that he tries to create an environment where he and River can spend time together without screens.Ashley then admitted: “It’s tough. No one wants to be the ogre parent that comes in and goes, ‘All right, that’s it, everything off’. I don’t want them to feel like they’re not the same as their friends.“You get caught up in all of that stuff as a parent, but I feel like around the world this show has allowed parents to go, ‘Fuck that shit. Adolescence says this could happen. Now we’re going to start having this conversation’. I think that’s a good thing.”View this post on InstagramA post shared by Men's Health UK (@menshealthuk)Back in May, Ashley told Fearne Cotton’s My Happy Place podcast: “The biggest thing I’ve taken from [Adolescence] is how it’s affected me and my family. It’s very rare that I will be in a show and then learn huge things about myself afterwards.”He shared: “I realised I’ve been a bit too liberal as a parent. I’ve been a bit too easygoing with my kids, with devices, screen time, stuff like that.“I don’t think I understood how dangerous those things can be sometimes, so there are a lot of changes that happened in my house, a lot of conversations between me and my wife just about where we’re going with them and how much time they spend on screens and on their iPads.“The stuff that they’re doing on there, as well, that we maybe felt was, like, quite harmless, actually you look deeper into it and you’re like, ‘wow, that could lead to this and that could lead to that’.”Ashley also opened up about how he parents his nine-year-old son – encouraging him to be not just candid about his feelings, but openly affectionate – during a candid conversation on the A View From A Bridge Instagram page.View this post on InstagramA post shared by A View, from a bridge (@aview.fromabridge)He said: “A lot of the problems that we’re facing are because young men don’t talk about how they feel – because they feel it isn’t masculine, you know, it’s feminine, it isn’t the right thing to do… but a problem shared is a problem halved. I know it’s cliché, but it’s true.“We can clearly see the suicide rate amongst young men is so high, because we don’t speak enough. So, we need to encourage young men, especially, to talk about how they feel.“The art of speaking, and the art of touching, and talking, and being physical with each other, is so important for the human race. And the more we kind of walk away from it, the less human we’re going to be.”Read Ashley Walters’ full interview in Men’s Health.READ MORE:27 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Probably Didn't Know About How Adolescence Was FilmedAdolescence Director Reveals What He Really Thinks Of That Viral Wallpaper TheoryStephen Graham Reveals How He Really Feels About A Potential Adolescence Season 2

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