Joey Lawrence Is a 'Helicopter Parent' After Seeing 'Horror Stories' Involving Drugs and Social Media (Exclusive)
"I think it's the first time in history where things are fundamentally different to the way they were when we were growing up," the actor tells PEOPLE
joey lawrence/instagram
Joey Lawrence with daughters Charleston, Dylan and LibertyJoey Lawrence may be a successful actor and podcast host, but at the end of the day he's a dad above all else.
And like many parents these days, he's petrified of the unknown when it comes to social media and drugs.
"I think it's the first time in history where things are fundamentally different to the way they were when we were growing up," says the former Blossom star, who also recently starred in a new ad for VinFast's line of electric cars.
"In the '80s and '90s you had your answering machine, your Walkman, which was a little different to your parents. But now you have social media, the internet, and it's changed everything," he adds. "That made the world smaller. It's the whole world you have to worry about now."
Lawrence, 47, who is on Instagram, says he's not actually a fan of social media at all, especially when it comes to his teenage daughters, Liberty, 13, and Charleston, 17, with ex Chandie Yawn-Nelson. (He and his wife, Samantha Cope, welcomed daughter Dylan Rose in January.)
"Everybody's got a platform and you can bully from near or far," he says. "It's very tough to navigate as a young person through these times. Everyone wants to be glorified. Fame feels accessible to everybody. And they're presenting this life that doesn't really exist."
As someone who's navigated the spotlight for decades, Lawrence knows personally how detrimental that can be to someone's mental health.
So when it comes to his girls, he's as vocal about it as possible.
Related: Joey Lawrence and Samantha Cope Welcome Baby Girl: 'Overjoyed with Gratitude'
"All these insecurities and everything that young people go through as they're developing? I just try to give them perspective every chance I get to talk them through it. I don't mind being a helicopter parent, as annoying as that is," he says. "You have to be really consistent and beat that consistent drum and hope that most of what you say somehow gets absorbed into their brains."
Beyond worrying about social media and peer pressure, Lawrence is specifically petrified of fentanyl.
"You see horror stories every day," he says of the deadly synthetic opioid. (In the past two decades, more than 5,000 children and teens have died from fentanyl overdoses, according to data published earlier this year in JAMA Pediatrics.)
"These kids are buying their weed over Snapchat and it can be laced with fentanyl. There's really crazy stuff going on. I tell my teenage daughter, she's going to all these senior parties and is getting ready to go to college, I tell her you can't [take anything]. I don't care if they say it's from a dealer, you just can't do it because they're lacing things with fentanyl on purpose — you eat a gummy bear and then you're dead."
He adds, "You used to be able to monitor it. You knew who the bad kids in school were, the ones to watch out for in the neighborhood."
He knows social media has changed that. "It's the world in which they live, though," he says.
"You don't want them to live in a fishbowl because they're eventually going to be exposed to this, and if they don't know about [the bad stuff] or aren't savvy about it, they could be subject to being victims," he says. "So there is a balance. It's really the Wild West out there. I feel like we're parenting in this very brackish period which has created a lot of tumult, in my personal opinion."
So does it make him yearn for the simpler days of Nintendo, video stores and lighthearted family comedies like Blossom?
"Going to Blockbuster and scooping up the latest releases to watch over the weekend?" he says. "It was the golden age!"
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