It’s hard to believe that Prince George is already 12 years old, but despite the fact that he’s just months away from becoming a teenager, he still doesn’t have a cell phone. During Prince William‘s trip to Brazil, he admitted that the cell phone argument is becoming a “tense issue” where George is concerned, but at this point, his priority is keeping his kids safe from the dangers of technology for as long as possible.
William recently revealed that none of his kids have their own phone yet.
When William appeared on Eugene Levy’s Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveler last month, he revealed that George, Charlotte, and Louis are still without cell phones of their own — a matter that’s important to him and wife Kate Middleton.
“None of our children have any phones, which we’re very strict about,” he said on the show.
Now, the phone issue is becoming “tense.”
While William was in Brazil this week for the Earthshot Prize, he told TV host Luciano Huck that he’s doing his best to shelter his children from just how damaging social media and the internet can be.
“Our children don’t have phones. I think when George moves on to secondary school, then maybe he might have a phone that has no internet access,” he said in the interview, via People. “And to be honest, it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming a little bit of a like tense issue.”
Still, William believes George understands where he’s coming from.
Though we imagine that any 12 year old like George would be a bit miffed not to have their own phone when many of their school friends likely have one already, William said that he thinks George understands that his parents are just trying to keep him safe.
“We communicate why we don’t think it’s right,” he said. “And again, I think it’s the internet access I have a problem with. I think children can access too much stuff they don’t need to see online, and so having a phone and text message, the old sort of ‘brick phone’ as they call them, I think that’s fine.”
William has always seemed to be a very involved dad.
He confirmed that’s still true in the interview, too, adding that he often feels like a “taxi driver” shuttling his kids around to their different sports practices and other activities — even if Kate is still doing most of the school drop offs and pick ups.
“School run most days,” William said. “I mean, Catherine and I share it. She probably does the bulk of them.”
Sounds about right!
