Soccer star David Beckham touched on the dangers of social media and how his family deals with cyberbullying in a conversation with CNBC anchor Tanya Breyer at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old president and co-owner of the American soccer club Inter Miami recalled his football career, which lasted from 1992 to 2013, and how he dealt with the pressure of being fired during the match.
“I'm really glad social media didn't exist back then, because it was bad enough back then,” Beckham said. “What people told me was bad enough.”
Beckham and his wife, Victoria, have four children, and he said they face enormous pressure from social media. Beckham's eldest, Brooklyn, is 25 and his youngest, Harper, is 13.
The former footballer said his daughter is not on any social media platform, adding, “We will keep it that way for a while,” but his sons have prominent social media accounts.
“They all have people messaging them and they all sit down with me and Victoria and say 'How do we deal with this father?' “As much as you turn to them and say 'Don't read it,' we all read it, and that's the problem. We're all drawn to it, and there's a lot of bullying that happens, and it's not just with kids. It's with adults,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we live in a culture where bullying seems to be acceptable and should never be accepted. So I think social media platforms have a real responsibility to protect people from that.”
Beckham, who has more than 88 million followers on Instagram, said he feels a sense of responsibility over his content and that every post has “real thought” behind it.
He said: “The strange post was published, and it is clearly a commercial post, but I review every post, every comment because I think it is important.”
“With following social media in this way, there is a lot of responsibility to that, and there are bad parts of social media and there are good parts of social media. What we are trying to do with my followers and my social media platform is use it for good,” he added.
Beckham, who is attending the World Economic Forum for the first time, received the letter on Monday Crystal Award – which honors “cultural leaders who have made significant contributions to promoting social, environmental and creative progress” – for its work in protecting vulnerable children. He has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2005.
