Amanda Owen says screens are essential, not harmful, for her family

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 19 Oct, 12:01 · Archive

Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen says banning screens would be hypocritical and that they have been essential to her family's farming business.

Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen has said that screens have been essential to her family and that it would be 'incredibly hypocritical' to ban them for her children. The 52-year-old features in the Channel 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her rural life with her nine children as they renovate a derelict farmhouse at Ravenseat Farm in Swaledale, North Yorkshire.

Owen believes that screens make life considerably more manageable on the remote farm. She places no restrictions on her children's screen usage, though she notes that internet access is limited to inside the farmhouse, which she describes as the 'perfect split'.

Owen said that screens have been crucial to the farm's survival. 'Screen is what has been our lifeline,' she told the Press Association. 'It's what has given us the ability to put ourselves out there and basically to prop the whole business of farming up, which, let's be honest, is in dire straits.' She added that the farm's diversification through media would not have been possible without screens.

How it is being reported

• Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen breaks silence on why she won’t ban screens for her nine childrenThe Yorkshire Shepherdess is set to head to Leeds as part of her promotional tourYorkshire Evening Post · 19 Oct, 11:30
• Amanda Owen says screen time is a 'lifeline' and banning it would be 'hypocritical'Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen has said that screens have been a 'lifeline' for her family and that it would be 'incredibly hypocritical' to ban them for her children.Huddersfield Examiner · 19 Oct, 00:01

In this story: Amanda Owen · Ravenseat Farm · Swaledale · North Yorkshire · Channel 4

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