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Love Island winners Finn and Paige praise show's new social media ban

Paige Turley and Finley Tapp won the first ever winter series of Love Island in 2020 and think the new rules will help out families

Watch: Love Island reveals line-up for 2023 winter series

Winter Love Island winners Paige Turley and Finley Tapp believe that the show's brand new ban on islanders having active social media accounts is a good idea.

For the first time ever this year, contestant social media pages will be paused while they are in the villa, rather than having them maintained by friends and family.

Read more: Find out more about the cast of Winter Love Island 2023

Paige and Finn won the first ever winter series of Love Island in 2020 and said that the management of their social media pages was a "full time job" for the friends and family who took them on.

The couple told Mail Online that families will now have a "less stressful" time while their loved ones are looking for romance on the ITV2 show.

Finley Tapp and Paige Turley won the inaugural winter series of Love Island in 2020. (WireImage)
Finley Tapp and Paige Turley won the inaugural winter series of Love Island in 2020. (WireImage)

Turley said: "What I found was that it's your family on the outside who are seeing all the commotion and what everyone is saying online, and they're being left on cliffhangers with the show too. So our families had more of a rollercoaster than us with it."

She added that the situation was "quite challenging" for those friends and family members, given they were often not social media professionals.

Read more: Where are the Love Island winners now?

Tapp said that, when he left the show, the friend who he had asked to run his social media revealed that he had been forced to enlist other friends and family to lighten the load.

He added: "It was like a full time job and was quite consuming so I think [the ban] will be less stressful for the families."

Paige Turley and Finn Tapp revealed their friends and family struggled with the job of running their social media accounts. (ITV)
Paige Turley and Finn Tapp revealed their friends and family struggled with the job of running their social media accounts. (ITV)

The social media ban is part of an enhanced duty of care approach described by Dr Matthew Gould, one of those involved with overseeing it, as demonstrating ITV’s commitment to evolve protocols "to minimise harm, where possible".

Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be just the second ever winter series of Love Island and will see Maya Jama replace Laura Whitmore in the hosting role.

Read more: Which items are banned from the Love Island villa?

Love Island starts on 16 January, with 10 contestants set to enter the villa in South Africa as the dating competition gets going.

The format's first twist has already been revealed, with viewers asked to vote between two potential bombshell newcomers to enter the villa and shake things up.

Watch: Maya Jama kept Love Island news from her family