Jamie Oliver bans 14-year-old daughter from taking selfies

Celebrity chef and healthy-eating advocate Jamie Oliver has found something he hates almost as much as sugar: selfies. The British food personality appeared on The Lifestyle News Hound podcast recently, and said that he and his wife have banned their 14-year-old daughter from sharing selfies, which he says are like the “sugar of social media.”

Jamie Oliver and his wife both frequently post family photos to their own Instagram accounts. But according to the BBC, Oliver says he’s banned his daughter Daisy from posting selfies on her own social media accounts. He says he finds the way teenage girls use social media “frightening.”

“I’m going to generalise massively here, but from my observation so far, at 13 to 14 the kind of pictures girls are putting up, just from what I have seen, are split 50/50 - normal young girl and then this weird hybrid of, dare I say it, quite porno, sort of luscious, kind of pouty lips, pushing boobs out,” Oliver said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god!’ I don’t even want to look at some of the things my daughter shows me. I’m like, ‘Really? Aren’t their parents all over that like a rash?’”

Selfies are commonly associated with teenage girls, but they’re extremely popular with people of all ages. Yelp allows customers to check into a business by taking a selfie. One company even prints selfies in edible ink, so people can print their photos onto food and drinks. A London restaurant is even putting out Instagram kits so people can get the perfect shot.

Oliver is not a fan of any of this, and compared posting selfies on social media to the high a person gets from eating sugar.

“It’s almost the sugar of social media,” he said. “It’s a quick way to get some sort of pat on the back or love.”

Oliver may have banned his 14-year-old daughter from posting selfies, but actually getting kids to comply is another story. He says mostly she follows the rule, but sometimes a few selfies slip through. For grown-ups who can take and share whatever pictures they want, check out the 15 most Instagrammable destinations you can visit on a budget.