Actress Emma Watson has launched a scathing attack on social media, claiming it is responsible for young people losing their innocence.
The 23-year-old, who is best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, said that teenagers are becoming more self-conscious at a younger age because of the pictures uploaded to social media sites.
Watson claimed this is ‘shortening’ their childhoods and the 'blissful' period when young girls aren't concerned about what they look like.
She said: ‘I think it’s amazing how self-aware people are becoming as a result of constantly posting images on Facebook and Instagram.
‘They’re blissfully unaware their childhoods are being shortened. That period of time when you’re not self-conscious is sped up.’
Watson made the comments at the Cannes launch of her new film The Bling Ring which portrays the impact of social media on young people.
Based on a true story, Watson plays a wealthy pole-dancing socialite jailed for robbery after her friends are caught out bragging about their crimes online.
The gang tracked stars such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan online and stole goods worth £2million.
Miss Watson revealed she watched ‘a lot of the Kardashians and Paris Hilton’ to prepare for the role.
Speaking alongside co-stars Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga and Claire Julien, she said: ‘I think technology is playing a really big part in a sense that everything has started moving so much quicker.
‘We are becoming saturated with images. They can embody whatever they [fans] project onto that image.
‘It’s very different; it has very little to do with reality.’
The film's director Sofia Coppola added that the film demonstrates how social media has transformed how young people view fame and that most will do anything to achieve notoriety.
She told the Daily Telegraph: 'The whole story seemed to say so much about our time and growing up with Facebook and Twitter. This could never had happened 10 years ago.
'I was thinking how these kids must be affected by all of that and how reality TV seems so normal now to all of them having grown up with it. The idea of no privacy has become the norm.'
Coppola originally read the true story which the film is based on in a magazine.
She added: 'I think their quotes really struck me; how they didn't seem to think they had done anything wrong, and how they were most interested in the fame the robberies had brought them.'
Miss Watson, who was just nine-years-old when she was cast as Hermione for the Harry Potter films, was the picture of classic Hollywood glamour.
She wore a backless floor-length black and white gown with a sweetheart neckline, and had pulled her hair up into an elegant chignon.
The star also appeared to be sporting a ‘helix piercing’ looking like three diamond ear cuffs on her left ear.
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