Kate Winslet calls on British Government to ‘criminalise harmful content’

By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Kate Winslet has called on the “people in power” to “criminalise harmful content” as she picked up the leading actress gong at the Bafta TV awards.

The Oscar-winning actress, 47, starred alongside her daughter Mia Threapleton in I Am Ruth which chronicles the relationship between a mother and child who is dealing with mental health pressures coming from the online world.

On Sunday, Winslet told the ceremony: “I Am Ruth was made for parents and their children, for families who feel that they are held hostage by the perils of the online world, for parents who wish they could still communicate with their teenagers, but who no longer can.

“And for young people who have become addicted to social media and its darker sides, this does not need to be your life to people in power, and to people who can make change, please, criminalise harmful content.

“Please eradicate harmful content, we don’t want it.

"If I could cut this in half, I would give the other half to my daughter" ❤️

Kate Winslet accepts her Leading Actress BAFTA!#BAFTATVAwards with @pandocruises pic.twitter.com/x3tWx9k5Pw

— BAFTA (@BAFTA) May 14, 2023

“We want our children back.

“We don’t want to lie awake, terrified, by our children’s mental health and to any young person who might be listening, who feels that they are trapped in an unhealthy world.

“Please ask for help.

“There is no shame in admitting that you need support.

“It will be there just ask for it.”

Her comments came as the House of Lords continued its scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, which aims to tackle illegal and harmful content online.

Winslet stars as Ruth, a concerned mother who witnesses her teenage daughter Freya, played by 22-year-old Threapleton, retreating into herself as she becomes more consumed by the pressures of social media in the two-hour programme.

It is an instalment of the female-led drama anthology series I Am, created by filmmaker Dominic Savage, which also picked up a Bafta on the night for the programme with Winslet.

Each of the films followed the experience of women in particularly raw, thought-provoking and personal moments.