Parenting parameters. Sarah Michelle Gellar doesn’t let her kids have social media accounts — and is explaining the decision exclusively to Us Weekly.
“They’re not allowed at this point,” the actress, 44, told Us while promoting her Lysol partnership on Thursday, September 2. “That is a huge responsibility. … My son, [Rocky], doesn’t care. My daughter, [Charlotte], is definitely curious, but we’ve explained that these are our rules and different families have different rules.”
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum and her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., have talked to their children “at length” about why they can’t have Instagram accounts.
“One day, I’ll have to cross that bridge,” the New York native said. “I’ve told [Charlotte] it will have to be a public account because you have to be held accountable. I think that’s my biggest issue with social media is the lack of accountability. … You have to be OK with what you’re putting out there and be able to stand behind that. I just don’t think they’re at an age where they can really comprehend that.”
Charlotte, 11, and Rocky, 9, recently started school again amid the coronavirus pandemic, and Gellar told Us that she has “definitely” felt anxious since their return.
“My daughter started middle school, so there’s a little bit of that unknown factor,” the Cruel Intentions star explained. “But they’re very happy to see their friends and be out of learning in the house. Everybody did the best we could, but that was an incredibly difficult situation.”
She and her Scooby-Doo costar, 45, have a “large stockpile of masks” for their little ones. “I always tell them, ‘Take extras. Change them in the day,’” Gellar added. “‘You’ll get sweaty, you’ll get hot. Better safe than sorry.’”
The Golden Globe nominee jokes that she was a germaphobe long before the pandemic. Gellar is now partnering with Lysol, and the company is donating disinfectant wipes to kids in need with each purchase as part of their HERE for Healthy Schools initiative.
“They’re going to donate up to 16 million packs,” the former soap star told Us. “That’s amazing. … It’s really important right now in our world, not just to protect ourselves but to protect those around us. It’s amazing to think about what Lysol has done … foreseeing that we had to have a bigger, broader conversation about healthy habits.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
