Television presenter Kirstie Allsopp has defended her decision to smash her children’s iPads after they broke her screen-time rules, and has hit back at the online abuse she has received.

The Location, Location, Location host suspended her Twitter account earlier this week following a backlash on social media over her parenting style.

Allsopp said she did not regret smashing the devices against a metal coffee table leg while her 10- and 12-year-old sons watched in horror in June this year after breaking house rules for playing video games.

“If anything makes the case for keeping young people away from computer screens, it is the abuse I have received this week,” she wrote in the Daily Mail. “The viciousness with which some people have responded is out of all proportion to the alleged offence.”

Allsopp said her sons, Oscar and Bay, were reading more, playing more chess, watching more movies and arguing less since smashing the iPads. She wrote that she wanted her children to experience risk, saying: “My boys have access to motorbikes, all sorts of knives, old swords, axes and tools.”

She said of the iPads: “I have had them mended so we can access films and photos, but they will never be returned to the boys.”

In the column, the TV presenter also describes how her sons reacted on the evening of the incident.

She wrote: “That night, Oscar lay in bed with big fat tears pouring down his face. ‘You are supposed to be in charge of everything that makes me happy, how could you do that?’. It was heartbreaking. I cried, too. But I explained that nothing good could come of staying indoors playing computer games.”

Allsopp’s comments come as a government adviser said parents should leave their mobile phones on the kitchen table at night as an example to their children.

Ian Bauckham, who advises ministers on relationship and sex education in schools, said parents should “not be checking their phone 12 times during a family meal” and be involved in their children’s use of social media.

“Make sure all computers are switched off at least two hours before bedtime. Don’t allow internet access in the bedroom, particularly not mobile phones, and all mobile phones – including Mum’s and Dad’s – get left on the kitchen table when you go to bed,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

From September 2020, children as young as four will be taught of the dangers of social media and given guidance on spotting harmful online content.