Madonna banned her youngest son from having a phone after what happened with her older children: ‘It ended my relationship with them’

Pop icon Madonna once revealed that giving mobile phones to her older children at the age of 13 affected her relationship with them so much that she did not want to go through it again with her younger son. The singer said she decided to keep her son David away from smartphones for as long as possible after seeing how technology and social media changed the lives of his older siblings.

In a 2019 interview with Vogue, Madonna opened up about the difficulties of juggling her music career and raising six children. She said that giving phones to her oldest children, Lourdes and Rocco, when they were teenagers was a decision she regretted.

"I'm going to stick that one out for as long as possible, because I made a mistake when I gave my older children phones when they were 13," the singer said.


Explaining how the devices affected their relationship, she added, "It ended my relationship with them, really. Not completely, but it became a very, very big part of their lives."

Why Madonna believes smartphones affected her children

Madonna said it’s not just that her older children were on their phones too much. She was also worried about the kind of content they were exposed to and how it affected their self-perception.

"They became too inundated with imagery and started to compare themselves to other people, and that's really bad for self-growth," she told Vogue.

At the time of the interview, concerns about children’s social media use were also becoming a talking point in the UK. An Ofcom report, published in January 2019, found that 18% of children aged between eight and 11 had set up profiles online regardless of the fact that most of the major social networking sites set aminimum age for registration.

Why her youngest son David reminds her of herself

Madonna also spoke about her relationship with David, adopted from Malawi in 2006 with then-husband Guy Ritchie. At the time of the interview, David was 13 years old and playing football with the youth academy of Benfica in Portugal.

She said he was the child most like her, especially in his personality and the way he went after his goals.

"What David has more than anything is focus and determination. I'm pretty sure he got it from me. He's the one I have the most in common with," she said.

She also talked about her oldest daughter Lourdes, whom she shares with actor Carlos Leon. Madonna spoke about how social media and her family’s fame could influence her daughter’s career, even as she lauded her talent in dancing, acting and music.