EastEnders star Lucy Benjamin reveals why she is 'terrified' of social media

Lucy Benjamin is "terrified" of social media.

The 53-year-old actress - who has daughters Bessie, 16, and 12-year-old Rosie with her former husband Richard Taggart - stepped away from her signature role as Lisa Fowler on the BBC soap opera 'EastEnders' last year and now that she is starring as the mother of a wannabe influencer in 'Look to the Light', she explained that she "relies" on her own children to help her reluctantly "embrace" the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

She told Digital Spy: "We can all have different opinions, but conversations have to be had. There's no shying away from it. Social media is here to stay.

"I feel out of my depth with it. I'm relying on my kids to kind of make me savvy with it. It terrifies me. But just because I'm scared of it, it doesn't mean it's got to go away. I've got to embrace it – and have ownership over it, almost.

"At my age, I'd rather close the door, and go, 'I don't like that. So go away. I'm not doing it.' But it's a fact of life now, I think. It's here to stay. A whole new world! I rely on my kids, they know it more than I know it."

But the former 'I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' contestant is keen to "limit the amount" of time her daughters spend on-screen because she is aware that interacting via social media does not constitute a "conversation" in the real word.

She said: "The only thing I can do is sabotage it by making them not be on the screen so much, or look at the world as we drive past something or are on a train or on the bus.

"You know, let's see what's happening, as opposed to looking down. So I try to limit the amount.

"But it's a different way of communicating among their peers now. It's a method of communication.'Hello' is a Snapchat, or it's whatever it is. It's not a conversation."