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

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

Do you not find unrestricted iMessages to be problematic? Dont groups and content sharing in them end-up fomenting a similar doomscroll dynamic as access to other content rich apps?

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 persistent notifications. Snap is the worst for this, but messaging apps are a close second.

Not a whole lot of doomscrolling. There is more engagement - but I’ve resigned to the fact that it’s how kids communicate. For example - if they need to discuss homework or projects or even something simple as plan for boba tea.

I’d rather they walk to their friends’ place. But now they make the plan and then walk to where they need to be.

Apple’s screen time parental settings are some of the most obtuse and frustrating features I’ve had to navigate on their devices (so much, that I honestly wonder if the people behind it even have kids).

I’m glad they exist but they could be so much better.

Can you be more specific? I’m curious.

My son is too young to use a phone but I plan to use screentime when he’s ready for a phone.

I use screen time for myself, with a 1minute limit for weekdays and 1 hour limit for weekends, for all social media, news and media consumption apps, and my wife has the password (because I have zero self control)

Younger kids are happy to hit the one more minute button for hours to continue doing what they are doing in one minute increments. Older kids are happy to download the shadiest weirdest browsers you haven't explicitly blocked and keep them uninstalled by running them directly from the dmg without dragging them over to the applications folder.

Interesting. The one more minute button is only available once a day for me

They may have improved it recently, which would be great

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...

>It doesn’t take a lot of effort

Sorry, but that's where you're wrong (at least, if you mean enforcing effective limits). What you're asking is for parents to spend their scarce time and energy on fighting a technical battle, against a system that is designed to capture attention, and kids with nothing but energy and time.

>But it’s pretty well controlled and they adjust to it

Or they did 10 seconds of googling and have all the access they want.