Kate Winslet: Parents feel powerless over their kids' use of social media

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To play this video you need JavaScript enabled in your browser. < /figure>By Laura Kuenssberg & Rob CorpSunday with Laura Kuenssberg

The government should force social media companies to enforce age limits to help combat their impact on children's mental health, actress Kate Winslet has said.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said parents felt "utterly helpless" about how to help their children navigate social media.

< p class="ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00">Winslet said security checks could be more stringent and that those in power "should step up" child protection.

She was speaking ahead of the launch of her new Channel 4 film, I Am Ruth.

The feature film e drama sees Winslet star opposite her real-life daughter Mia Threapleton as the mother of a teenage girl whose mental health begins to suffer as she becomes increasingly consumed by the pressures of social media.

Winslet said the decision to focus on children's mental health followed a conversation with the film's creator, Dominic Savage, about how parents can help "when they can clearly see there is a problem".

Kuenssberg: Who needs to 'step up' to keep children safe online? Plan to have big tech remove harmful content. Can Age Verification Prevent Children From Viewing Pornography? child obsessed with his phone.

He had to cover "what's really going on with that phone, how it's impacting his self-esteem, how it's an impact on eating habits, their mental state in terms of thinking about things like self-harm, "Winslet...