Tech billionaires and executives like Evan Spiegel and Peter Thiel are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich

Tech titans such as Evan Spiegel and Peter Thiel are shielding their offspring from the very technology that propelled their fortunes. In the midst of a society increasingly dominated by screens, these billionaires and executives have opted to keep their own children away from the devices that helped them amass wealth.

Since as early as 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has expressed his family's limited use of technology at home, including not allowing his children to use iPads. As screen time among children has become more commonplace, particularly as busy parents rely on technology for temporary relief, the issue has gained prominence.

In the U.S., children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours per day using or viewing screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Amid this rise, Silicon Valley's wealthiest individuals and executives have increasingly sought to regulate how their families utilize technology and for how long, partly due to the proliferation of addictive social media and short-form video content.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who has three children, admits to limiting their screen time, implementing stricter rules on weekdays and more leniency on weekends. YouTube co-founder Steve Chen also expressed his reluctance to have his children consume solely short-form content, suggesting that longer videos may promote healthier attention spans.

On the other hand, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, father to three children, employs a unique strategy. He starts with zero minutes of screen and video game time on weekends and grants additional time based on weekly homework completion. He maintains that revoking earned screen time often leads to negative behavior.

Peter Thiel, early Facebook investor and billionaire, has gone a step further, restricting his two young children to a maximum of one and a half hours of screen time per week—news that elicited stunned reactions from the audience at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival. Other tech leaders, like Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, adapt their approach based on age, allowing limited screen time for younger children while providing more access for older ones.

Despite the diverse strategies employed by these tech elites, growing scientific evidence suggests that screen time may have detrimental effects on mental health and cognitive function, especially among younger users. In response, several countries are considering or implementing legislation to limit minors' access to social media platforms.