Ashley Walters says he limits son’s screen time since Adolescence role

The Adolescence star Ashley Walters has said the show led him to limit one of his sons’ screen time, and that he “can’t even touch his device” for half of the week.

The 42-year-old, who played DI Luke Bascombe in the series, said he had started “drawing back on his son’s screen time” because of concern he was not always doing what he said he was.

“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,” he said in an interview with Men’s Health UK.

“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.”

The critically acclaimed television show, Netflix’s second biggest ever English-language series, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is arrested for the murder of a female classmate, and explores issues around so-called “incel” (involuntary celibate) culture, misogyny and online bullying.

Walters said he would “love to” return to the show for a second series, but he thought that would involve “completely different characters with a completely different story” if it happened.

He said his involvement in the show had had a direct impact on his parenting. Walters has two children and a stepson with his wife, the actor Danielle Walters, and has six children with two former partners.

One of his sons is a keen animator but Walters said he was more cautious about giving him free rein with online devices.

“[As parents] we’re really about uplifting and pushing the things that they love. 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,” he said.

“We’ve been very conscious about that and drawing back on his screen time. Half the week, he can’t even touch his device. Then, actually, it’s about me stepping in as a dad and saying ‘let’s go fishing’, ‘let’s do more stuff’, so he doesn’t want to be on there as much as he is.”