Phillip Schofield clashed with a This Morning guest during a debate about whether primary school children are too young to go on dates.
On Wednesday’s show, Phil and Rochelle Humes were joined by journalist Julia Hartley Brewer and debater Nilufer Atik to discuss the issue.
The debate came after news that a 10-year-old boy from Edinburgh tried to woo his ‘girlfriend’ with a cheeky Nandos, but was kicked out of the restaurant because he was too young.
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Nilufer said she believes dating is strictly for over-16s and letting children date too young contributes to teenage pregnancies and inappropriate messaging.
When asked why she feels so strongly about the issue, Nilufer said: “Why were they unaccompanied by an adult, it’s not safe I don’t think. Anything could happen to them.”
She continued: “Secondly, why would a 10 year old want a date. Why do we date? We date because we’re attracted to either member of the opposite sex or the same sex.
“So we date either because we want to forge a romantic relationship with that person, or to have sex. Why else do we date?”
When former Saturdays singer Rochelle asked Nilufer if she was “taking the innocence out of it”, Nilufer replied: “No, because adults date for either one of those two reasons. At the age of 10 that’s the last thing they should be thinking about.”
However, Phil was quick to disagree and shared his own story from when he was a kid.
He explained: “When I was eight there was someone at school I quite liked. My folks set up a little table in the sitting room and she came round.
“It was like a restaurant and my mum came in and we sat down and we talked about school. There was nothing else other than the fact that I quite liked her. Nothing entered my head.”
But Nilufer added: “There were adults there, and this was almost like dress up. It’s like a little game of house you guys were playing. We live in a very different age these days…”
Phil interrupted: “No we don’t.”
As Nilufer tried to continue, Phil said: “There were just as many dodgy folk then as there are now.”
Nilufer hit back: “We didn’t have access to the material that kids now have access to on the internet. We weren’t influenced by that material.
“We couldn’t access pornography online. Children as young as 10 can nowadays.”
Phil said: “The fact that they went on a date in Nando’s doesn’t mean they are sexually active online looking at porn.”
Nilufer added: “The date could be the first step to something else and that’s what worries me.”
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Phil then read out a statement from the Nando’s restaurant that the young boy was kicked out of.
It read: “We know nobody wants to go on a date with their parents but unfortunately it’s a legal requirement of our alcohol license in Scotland that under-13s must be accompanied by an adult.
“We hope that the date went well and we’re sorry if we cramped his style.”
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