Live data from Hacker News

YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

cnbc.com

151–160 of 198 posts

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#151
I've certainly spent a lot of my life on social media - even as a child. It's just that back then the media was the forum that my friends and I ran; the other forums we talked on; and then later the video-games we played. There certainly is an increase in the amount of addictiveness now of the feed. I was always easily addicted to writing and reading a lot of online text (a lot of which was just garbage on both sides) but the habit seems stronger now. I wonder what changed. I'm trying a couple of experiments: one is to reduce engagement bait stuff by blocking users who say it; and the other is to try to end infinite-feeds.

I think I have a desire to 'correct' other people and a desire to 'complete' the feed. If I can eliminate these two, I wonder if I can reduce the problem.

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#152
post #90

Screen time features exist on most devices. Parents - please set them up. It doesn’t take a lot of effort. I limit my kids for 1/2 hr of screen time per day. I exclude apps like iMessage, phone and maps. Yeah - they do ask for more time here and there. But it’s pretty well controlled and they adjust to it

Personally (as parent of two high schoolers) I think leaving texting unmanaged is wild. We block social media apps (Snap, IG, etc) and also regular media (YT, Netflix, Disney+, Tubi, etc). Social media because of toxic content and regular media because of distractions. We limit messaging app time to 30min/day, whether it's SMS/RCS, Whatsapp, Telegram, or something else. By far the most distracting thing for kids is p…

Great point. We need parental controls for throttling non-critical notifications.

Study: Average teen received more than 200 app notifications a day https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/study-average-te...

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#153

This isn't hypocrisy, it's parenting. Do you think the Pfizer CEO lets their kids have unlimited Viagra? Or the Anheuser-Busch CEO's kids have unlimited Bud Light? I don't think this is the gotcha it's painted as.

The hypocrisy is not because they are limiting access to their kids. It is because they are limiting access to their kids, while actively creating and executing algorithms to increase user engagement even to the point of making people addictive and dependent on their platforms.

But that would affect their children exactly the same. It doesn't, because they do some parenting. (Or subcontract it, which is the same thing.)

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#154
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally (as parent of two high schoolers) I think leaving texting unmanaged is wild. We block social media apps (Snap, IG, etc) and also regular media (YT, Netflix, Disney+, Tubi, etc). Social media because of toxic content and regular media because of distractions. We limit messaging app time to 30min/day, whether it's SMS/RCS, Whatsapp, Telegram, or something else. By far the most distracting thing for kids is p…

Great point. We need parental controls for throttling non-critical notifications. Study: Average teen received more than 200 app notifications a day https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/study-average-te...

[deleted]

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#155
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they're saying is these folks don't trust the privacy of their hardware, they use a dud cable to block the microphone from listening. I think what they're getting at is people close to the situation (not sure why Ye is in the privacy discussion, but Zuck certainly is) don't trust the controls in place.

who has a dedicated mic input port in 2025? I doubt any CEOs do.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#156
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of normal people don't think it's fine. Lots of parents limited their kids' TV (television, you know) time back in the day (mine sure did, thanks mum and dad, even though I didn't particularly approve of the restriction back then). Now you have to limit smartphone (and tablet and PC and TV) time. Lots of parents do this already, CEOs are not alone.

The television set was never in every kids pocket, though. And obviously "lol don't buy your kid a smartphone then lol". sure, easy to say, but the world is getting more and more connected.

Availability is definitely a factor, but I feel that a far more important aspect is that a YouTube feel is personalised. It's A/B testing you for weeks on end, and has a pretty good idea of how to get maximum engagement. TV was never this targeted, nor was there feedback to ratchet up what it suggested to you.

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#157
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of normal people don't think it's fine. Lots of parents limited their kids' TV (television, you know) time back in the day (mine sure did, thanks mum and dad, even though I didn't particularly approve of the restriction back then). Now you have to limit smartphone (and tablet and PC and TV) time. Lots of parents do this already, CEOs are not alone.

The television set was never in every kids pocket, though. And obviously "lol don't buy your kid a smartphone then lol". sure, easy to say, but the world is getting more and more connected.

Plus a lot of the times there was nothing interesting to watch on TV even if you did have it in front of you.

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#158

This thread is person after person saying “oh wow, person who sells terrible thing for humanity doesn’t let their kids have unlimited access to terrible thing! It’s so obvious. This isn’t news.” The news is that the CEO of youtube is saying that Youtube is something that should be limited and he thinks harm will come to his children if he does not. This may be obvious to people on this site but a lot of normal people…

So you kinda saying youtube for kids should limit itself to N hours per day per IP address / device?

Perhaps australia should’ve implemented such limitations. Burden of enforcement on big tech since the have billions to spend anyway.

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#159
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you plan to do? Mine is in preschool but it's just a few years away...I feel pretty desperate.

Just ban it. My kid is in that age group and roblox is banned. Her feelings on the matter are irrelevant. I don't know why people hand wring about "oh they'll be left out". Oh well? I'm a millennial. I remember being just a poor kid at a school with kkds much wealthier than me. There were a lot of things my friends had that I didn't. Like a cellphone. I wasn't in the group chats and somehow I still survived. My kid i…

My guess is your kid is a little older than mine. Do you find she has actually adhered to the ban? Or do you think she plays it with her friends when you’re not around (such as at their homes)?

Re: YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

#160
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The television set was never in every kids pocket, though. And obviously "lol don't buy your kid a smartphone then lol". sure, easy to say, but the world is getting more and more connected.

Availability is definitely a factor, but I feel that a far more important aspect is that a YouTube feel is personalised. It's A/B testing you for weeks on end, and has a pretty good idea of how to get maximum engagement. TV was never this targeted, nor was there feedback to ratchet up what it suggested to you.

Kids don’t stand a chance against decades of data/research and billions of dollars weaponized against human psychology to garner as much of your attention as possible at all times.
Post reply on HN