Phillip Schofield shocked by guest who says children shouldn't be allowed to date other children

This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield was left furious on Thursday (November 1) after a guest suggested that 10-year-old children shouldn’t be allowed to date.

Appearing on the ITV morning show, journalist Nilufer Atik argued that adults only go on dates to forge a romantic relationship or have sex, so the idea of children dating is a worrying sign of how things are changing.

“Why would a 10 year old want to date?” she asked. “Why do we date, we date because we’re either attracted to someone of the same sex or the opposite sex.So we date to forge a romantic relationship with that person or to have sex.

“Why do adults date, they date for one of those two reasons, to take it further than a friendship or to have sexual intercourse.”

Schofield was in wild disagreement with Atik, however, arguing that she was taking the innocence out of harmless, cute dates between children.

He said: “When I was about eight, there was someone at school I quite liked… my folks set up a little table in the sitting room and she came round and my mum came in and we talked about school.

“There was nothing else except that I quite liked her – nothing entered my mind.”

But Atik argued that things have changed now and that children could take things further because they have access to pornographic material.

Shocked by her comment, Schofield replied: “There were just as many dodgy folk as there are now. The fact they went for a date in Nando’s doesn’t mean they’re sexually active online looking at porn!”

Viewers on Twitter were in agreement with Schofield, with one person writing: I don’t think 10-year-olds going on a date is bad at all, it’s just a bit of fun and means no harm!”

While another said: About the ten-year-olds on a date, it’s all innocent, and it’s just cute! What’s wrong with this woman? Complete overreaction.”

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