Jereremy Clarkson ‘had no idea’ as he opens up on ‘serious problem’ | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Jeremy Clarkson has admitted he was blindsided by what he now sees as one of the gravest dangers facing young people, confessing “I simply had no idea”. Writing in The Sun, the former Top Gear presenter said that while he once fretted over more traditional teenage risks, he failed to recognise that the most corrosive influences were already in his children’s hands.

Reflecting on his experience as a parent, Clarkson said: “When my kids were teenagers, I worried about them taking drugs and going on motorbikes, and I simply had no idea that the real danger was lurking in their telephones.” His comments come as the Government prepares to tighten legislation aimed at tackling the spread of non-consensual intimate images online. Earlier this week, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to strengthen the law so that technology companies must remove such material within 48 hours of it being reported.

Clarkson, however, argues that the speed of online circulation makes that deadline unrealistic. “This is laughable because if someone uploads a topless picture of you, all your friends will see it within 48 seconds,” he said. “Forty-eight hours on the internet is about four million years.”

The Prime Minister has framed the proposed changes as part of a broader campaign to combat online abuse targeting women and girls. Under an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, platforms that fail to comply with removal requests within the two-day window could face significant financial penalties or even be blocked in the UK.

Starmer, who previously served as director of public prosecutions, said his experience exposed him to the “unimaginable, often lifelong pain and trauma violence against women and girls causes.” He added: “As Prime Minister, I will leave no stone unturned in the fight to protect women from violence and abuse.”

Describing the digital sphere as a new battleground, Starmer declared: “The online world is the front line of the 21st century battle against violence against women and girls. That’s why my government is taking urgent action: against chatbots and ‘nudification’ tools.

“Today we are going further, putting companies on notice so that any non-consensual image is taken down in under 48 hours.

“Violence against women and girls has no place in our society, and I will not rest until it is rooted out.”

Clarkson, 65, does not dispute the seriousness of the issue. In fact, he suggests it runs even deeper than policymakers appreciate. He pointed to the HBO series Euphoria, starring Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney, as a sobering depiction of the pressures facing modern adolescents.

“What Starmer needs to do is watch a TV show starring Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney. It’s called Euphoria and God knows what possessed me to tune in – teenage angst and a lot of male nudity is not my thing normally – but Lord, I’m glad I did,” Clarkson said. “I know it’s a drama but if only half of the issues are real, society has a serious problem.”

For Clarkson, the show underlined how digital culture has intensified teenage life. He listed the darker elements he believes have become commonplace: “The bullying. The d*ck pics. The revenge porn threats. And a very real sense that if you say or do something that is considered out of line by an unseen woke police force, that’s you done.”

While he agrees that Starmer is right to focus on the impact social media has on teenage girls, he questions whether a 48-hour removal rule is sufficient in practice. “Starmer is right to be thinking about the effect social media has on teenage girls. But suggesting that a platform must take down revenge nudes and deep fake pictures within two days demonstrates he does not understand the scale of the problem.”