I worry about my hi-tech children, confesses Blair
By Rachel Sylvester

News - 10 Downing Street

TONY BLAIR has expressed concern about the amount of time his children spend playing with computers and video games, saying that new technology can undermine family life.

 Although the Government has promised to link every school to the internet, the Prime Minister fears that children could be damaged by spending too much time in front of a screen.

 In an interview with Red magazine, he said: "I look at my kids and, on one level, it frightens me because if you're not careful, they'll spend all their time on the computer when it's also important to have conversations with people. The pressures on parents and children are changing. I look at mine with all their computers and CDs and video games and wonder how you balance that with family life." 

Mr Blair also raises concerns that the rapid succession of technological developments could destabilise society. "The new prosperity is great but kids are under more pressure to succeed. People need fixed points of order and stability when the technology around us is changing so quickly." Parenting is also increasingly difficult because of the growing number of working mothers, says Mr Blair whose own wife is a full-time barrister. "It's all much harder than when my mum was looking after us all at home and my dad wouldn't hear of her going out to work."

 The Prime Minister's comments will provoke criticism that he is dragging his children Euan, 16, Nicholas, 14, and Kathryn, 12, into the public domain when he has always insisted that their privacy should be maintained. The Blairs recently took their former nanny to court to stop her publishing an account of her time looking after the children at Number 11.

 However, Mr Blair says: "I can't separate my politics from my own experiences as a father and the things I've done - wrong or right - for my kids are always at the back of my mind. In the area of family policy, which can be difficult, I believe you're better working by instinct than by politics."

 He says he finds fatherhood "more difficult than being Prime Minister" but has tried to make life as normal as possible for his children. "We're a close family and so far, touch wood, it's been fine. Like it or not, their parents are in the public eye but they're happy, well-adjusted kids. The important thing for them is to realise that at some point I'll move on and they'll have to make their own way in the world . . . I say to them, 'Now everyone's interested in you because I'm Prime Minister but it won't always last. There's nothing quite so ex as an ex-prime minister'."

 Family values campaigners have accused the Blair administration of undermining the family by removing Married Couples Allowance and trying to scrap Section 28, which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools. However, Mr Blair says that he remains committed to the traditional family. "You have to explain to people that even though society and the nature of the family might change, the basic principles and rules do not. Two parents are better than one."

 Mr Blair defends the Government's right to comment on family life. "When politicians start preaching about people's lives they can get into serious trouble. But it is important to promote family life and I don't think that's about stigmatising single parents. It's about creating a better balance between home and working life."

 He also emphasises his commitment to reform of the adoption system. The Government will introduce a six-month time limit on children in care being placed in families, and make it easier for couples to adopt. He said: "Some of the rules, such as age limits, are very arbitrary."

 A senior Tory official accused Mr Blair of "parading" his children to the public "for apparent political gain". He said: "Not for the first time Mr Blair is trying to have it both ways. At one moment he fiercely insists on the privacy of his family life; at another moment he is only too keen to tell kitchen table stories."