While tech billionaires publicly defend their platforms, many strictly limit their own children’s device usage in response to growing concerns over mental health and shortened attention spans.
Prominent tech leaders are increasingly enforcing strict digital boundaries for their own families even as their companies dominate the global attention economy, highlighting a stark contrast between corporate promotion and private parenting. This trend, which dates back to Steve Jobs’ 2010 admission that “We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” has intensified with billionaires like Peter Thiel and Evan Spiegel restricting their children to just 90 minutes of screen time per week.
While YouTube cofounder Steve Chen warns that “shorter-form content equates to shorter attention spans,” and Elon Musk admits it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set social media rules for his children, the industry faces mounting legal and legislative pressure. Despite Meta executives like Adam Mosseri testifying that social media does not constitute “clinical addiction,” a 2025 study of 100,000 users linked short-form video to poorer cognition, fueling a global backlash that has already led countries like Australia and Malaysia to ban social media for minors under 16.
NEWS NOW:
- Mayweather, Pacquiao rematch set for september
- Mexican cartel kingpin ‘El Mencho’ was taken out after authorities tracked mistress to secret love nest
- Anthropic reports AI model “distillation attacks” by rivals, DeepSeek and others
- Trump predicts Supreme Court will rule against him on birthright citizenship after tariffs loss