this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
712 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

84274 readers
3037 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Despite building an increasingly screen-focused world, billionaire tech leaders are keeping their own children away from the tech they helped create.

As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”

Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video.

At the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, early Facebook investor and billionaire Peter Thiel joined Chen among the ranks of tech leaders who are setting strict limits on screens. Thiel said he only lets his two young children use screens for an hour-and-a-half per week, a revelation that prompted audible gasps from the audience.

Other tech CEOs, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk, have also spoken about limiting their children’s access to devices. Gates has said he did not give his children smartphones until age 14 and banned phones at the dinner table entirely. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, in 2018, said he limits his child to the same 1.5 hours per week of screen time as Thiel. And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.

Yet, as the trials against social media companies continue and country after country moves toward legislating what Silicon Valley’s billionaires have quietly practiced for years, the private behavior of the world’s most powerful tech figures stands in contrast to what they’re promoting and building

(page 2) 46 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MadhuGururajan@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

First of all these billionaires can afford to replace for their kids; what social media is with actual socialising that is destroyed by fear, nimbyism, and systematic destruction of third places for normal people. that's what private cities and walled off estates are for. They will continue to enjoy the fruits of socialism while selling capitalism for everybody else.

This is not a force to be triffled with or dismissed as so easy to escape from.

[–] aloofPenguin@piefed.world 0 points 2 months ago

that’s what private cities and walled off estates are for

I would just like to add that there is a school (I think in California) that the rich sends their kids to, where electronic devices are prohibited (and access restricted I believe). Though from the video, it does look lie the interact with others outside of that circle.

Here's the video: YouTube Link

[–] Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago

Because they know their kids will have an advantage over the stupefied masses if they can keep them unmezmerizes.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.

That would require him to spend more time around his children than photoshoots and using them as human shields

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Why do they have kids? Inheritance Tax Now!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Anti-christ thiel says whayt. Only because the billionaires have gotten thier wealth through unethical means, not including harming other people, of course the wrath will be directed at thier children too, since they benefited from it.

[–] enbiousenvy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

the antichrist guy

[–] mrnngglry@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Of course you do hey do but millions of us keep eating the shit they put in front of us, me included.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

How cute. They think the things billionaires say for ammo in the evential lawsuit are actually true.

[–] xenomor@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Goddamn, it reproduced already?

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah because they see us as animals that they can hurt to enrich themselves. They don't give a fuck what the consequences are to your children, that's your problem. Just because they reshape the inescapable environment you raise your kids in, doesn't mean they will ever see themselves as responsible for the effect that has on them, or you.

The mass of humanity needs to accept that private power concentrations are a threat to humanity and take steps to ensure they don't exist. Private interest are hostile to community interests. There is no middle ground with selfishness, it is relentless. The most selfish people will always end up with the power if power is allowed to concentrate. Democracy was literally the remedy for it and we've allowed democracy to be removed from the hands of the many in favour of the few.

Private power and community power can not peacefully coexist.

Democracy was literally the remedy for it and we’ve allowed democracy to be removed from the hands of the many in favour of the few.

Exactly, the entire point of having a government is supposed to be to protect society from these people.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Nothing to do with any virtue to be interested in their kid’s mental health and everything to do with avoiding getting blackmail using their kid’s identities

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago

My son was never interested in video games, nor does he use any social media. Instead, he reads and watches movies.

He's a film studies student, and knows films inside and out because he's seen almost everything, from every country, from every era. He's also an avid reader of classics, and just finished Moby Dick. It wasn't an assignment, he just wanted to read it.

He wouldn't be that smart if he'd buried himself in video games and social media.

[–] BiomedOtaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 months ago

Lol I've always known this. People are beyond retarded now. Like biggie use to say

" Never get high on your own supply "

[–] chaotic_ugly@lemmy.zip -2 points 2 months ago

Listen, billionaires suck. But if you think tech giants are hypocritical for strictly rationing screen time to their children then you have lost the plot.

Social media, and screen time in general, are bad for you. Everyone knows this now. If you aren't limiting your child's access, that's on you.

Before a child can get addicted, their parents have to give them access. If you can't live life without looking at a phone, TV, or tablet every free moment, then you're the reason your kids are turning into morons.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›