David Beckham ‘glad’ social media didn’t exist during his soccer days

[Pelican Press 0]

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David Beckham ‘glad’ social media didn’t exist during his soccer days

Soccer star David Beckham touched on the perils of social media and how his family deals with online bullying in a conversation with CNBC host Tania Bryer at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old president and co-owner of American soccer club Inter Miami CF looked back on his soccer career, which lasted from 1992 to 2013, and how he dealt with the pressure of being sent off during a match.

“I’m really glad social media wasn’t around back then because it was bad enough then,” Beckham said. “It was bad enough what people were saying to me.”

Beckham and his wife Victoria have four children, who he said face immense pressure from social media. Beckham’s eldest, Brooklyn, is 25 years old and his youngest, Harper, is 13.

The former soccer player said his daughter is not on any social media platform, adding that “we’re going to keep it like that for a while,” but his sons have notable social media accounts.

“They all have people send them messages and they all sit down with me and Victoria and say ‘How do we deal with this dad?’ As much as you turn around to them and say ‘Don’t read it,’ we all read it. That’s the problem. We’re all attracted to it. And there’s too much bullying that goes on and it’s not just with children, it’s with adults,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we live in a culture where bullying seems to be accepted and it should never be accepted. So I think that social media platforms have a real responsibility to protect people from that.”

Beckham, who has over 88 million followers on

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, said he feels a sense of responsibility over his content and that every post has “real thought” behind it.

“The odd post goes up that is obviously a commercial post but I am over every single post, every single caption because I think it’s important,” he said.

“With a social media following like that, there’s a huge responsibility with that, and there’s bad parts to social media and there’s good parts to social media. What we try to do with my following and my social media platform is use it for good,” he added.

Beckham, a first-time attendee at WEF, received on Monday the

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— which recognizes “cultural leaders who have made significant contributions to advancing social, environmental and creative progress” — for his work protecting vulnerable children. He has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 2005.

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