23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
The surprising way Snapchat brought Josh Gad closer to his daughter
It took Josh Gad some convincing, but he ultimately gave in to his daughters' request.
The 44-year-old actor, who voices Olaf in the 'Frozen' franchise, shares two daughters — Isabella Eve, 11, and Ava Tanya, 14 — with his wife of 17 years, Ida Darvish.
Like many parents today, Gad and his wife were skeptical about giving their kids more screen time — until they found a win-win solution.
'We are the parents who are screamed at every day of the week by our children saying, 'Why can't you just be like everyone else's parents and let us have unlimited screen time?'' he said in an interview with People, published March 19.
While the couple are fully aware of how 'unavoidable' technology is, especially for kids, they were also worried about recent reports that found today's technology 'clinically proven to be addictive.'
According to The Center for Parenting and Education, people 'between the ages of 8 to 28 spend about 44.5 hours each week in front of digital screens.'
But instead of isolating his oldest daughter from her friends, Gad found a way to make everyone happy.
'When we determined that her friends were using [Snapchat] as their primary source of communication, my wife saw that Snapchat had a family center with controlled settings,' Gad told the outlet.
'And it immediately gave both parties, my daughter and us, the reassurances that we need to allow her to use this,' he added.
Family Center is an in-app tool introduced by Snapchat in August 2022.
It helps parents 'get more insight into who their teens are friends with on Snapchat, and who they have been communicating with, without revealing any of the substance of those conversations,' per a 2022 release.
While talking to People, Gad said his early doubts had nothing to do with not trusting his daughters — and everything to do with not trusting everyone else on the internet.
'So any ability to monitor and hopefully prevent that kind of unwanted communication, I think that it should be the focus of every single one of these services,' Gad continues.
'And to Snapchat's credit, they really put their money where their mouth is,' he adds.
Gad told People it gives him and his wife the opportunity to 'breathe easier at night' by giving them 'control of the destiny' of how their kids use social media.
He also admitted that it has brought his entire family closer together.
'My niece would never text with my 76-year-old mother, and my mom got so frustrated,' Gad said to the outlet, adding that things started to change once they got on board with Snapchat.
'So my mom learned about Snapchat and downloaded it, and now my niece and her communicate all the time,' he continued.
Gad says he's 'all for it' now that his daughter has found a balance between using it enough, but not so much that it consumes their life.
'I'm like, 'Yes, have fun. I get it. I know that that's how you want to talk to your friends,'' he admits.
But according to People, Gad says he needs to refine his Snapchat skills before he falls too far behind the times.
That's why he sometimes prefers communicating with his daughter through Snapchat, especially when she appears to be distant in other, more traditional ways.
'So I'm like, 'Okay, let's snap about your day back and forth,'' he told People.
Gad said his younger daughter doesn't have a phone yet but that the girls are still close, according to the outlet.
'They're inseparable and yet they fight all the time,' he admits. 'It's the craziest thing. It's like they love each other to the point that they want to hurt each other.'
