KATE Winslet has banned her children from using social media in the house.

The star of the new Steve Jobs film, who has three kids including a teenage daughter, says it has a huge impact on young women’s self esteem, “because all they ever do is design themselves for people to like them. And what comes along with that? Eating disorders”.

Fair enough, that’s her opinion. But I don’t agree that social media is wholly responsible for causing eating disorders. If it was, we’d all have them because the desire to be thin and accepted isn’t the exclusive preserve of the young.

Without wishing to trivialise the devastating illnesses that are anorexia and bulimia, the sad fact remains that there will always be kids who compare themselves with stick-thin celebrities and go to any length to achieve the same look.

On the other hand, there are legions who can look at an image and rationalise that most of their peers don’t look anything like that, so don’t feel the pressure to starve or binge and vomit.

It’s too simple to blame social media for there are many other antagonists, like an individual’s life experience and mental state. Accepted, social media can have a detrimental effect, but it’s not the sole cause of teenage lack of self esteem.

But Kate thinks it is, so there’s a ban in her household. But I can’t imagine how she enforces it. Are the Winslet juniors swooped upon and frisked for mobile or tablets secreted on their person? Are all devices locked away in a padlocked box?

It’s nigh on impossible to stop kids using social media. My younger self would have thought up a hundred excuses as to why I needed access to a laptop – homework, research, writing to Auntie Nora to thank her for the lovely birthday present. And while I was doing the legitimate stuff I’d be having a sneaky look at Facebook.

And any parent who has ever tried to enforce an outright ban knows the consequences. Rebellion. And that’s not to say you have to give in to the little blighters, but negotiation renders greater rewards in my humble experience.

I can imagine Kate’s 14-year-old sitting at the back of a classroom at a posh private school feverishly catching up with all her social media news before she has to hand in her phone like a gunslinger at a sheriff’s office.