When tech giants fear their own creations. The YouTube boss has revealed how he allows his children access to technology
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Photo source: Evan Agostini / AP / Profimedia
Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, is the latest tech leader to publicly admit that he limits his children's time on social networks and media channels, amid growing concerns about the negative effects of the online environment on young people, reports CNBC.
Mohan, who took over the management of YouTube in 2023 and was recently appointed by Time magazine as the CEO of 2025, said in an interview that his children's access to digital platforms is carefully controlled, writes News.ro. The head of the video streaming platform has three children, two boys and a girl.
“We limit their time on YouTube and other platforms and other forms of media. We're stricter during the week and a bit more relaxed on the weekend. We're not perfect by any means,” Mohan said in a video published by Time Magazine on TikTok.
He emphasized that the principle of “everything in moderation” is the approach that works best for his family and that it applies to all online services and platforms.
Warning from specialists
Specialists have long drawn attention to the negative impact of the excessive use of smartphones and social networks on children and adolescents.
Jonathan Haidt, professor at New York University and author of the book “The Anxious Generation”, claims that children should not have smartphones before the age of 14 and access to social networks before the age of 16.
“Let them have a simple phone, but remember that a smartphone is not just a phone. It's a multi-functional device that brings the whole world to your kids,” Haidt said in an interview with CNBC.
Banned in Australia for children under 16
At the global level, the authorities are starting to react. Australia recently became the first country to officially ban the access of children under the age of 16 to the main social networks.
Before the law was passed, a YouGov poll showed that 77% of Australians supported the ban, although the implementation of the measure later encountered some difficulties.
In a longer interview with Time magazine, Mohan said he feels “a huge responsibility” to young people and to providing better tools for parents to control how their children use the platform.
YouTube Kids, the version dedicated to children, was launched in 2015 with just this purpose.
“My goal is to make it easy for all parents to manage their kids' YouTube use in a way that's appropriate for their own family,” Mohan said, noting that every household has different rules.
“Too much of anything is not a good thing”
His approach is not singular. The former CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, said in turn that she only allows younger children to use YouTube Kids and that she limits the time they spend on the platform.
“Too much of anything is not a good thing,” she said in a 2019 interview.
And Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, opposed early access to screens. He said that he did not give his children mobile phones until they were 14 years old and that their use was forbidden at the table.
In the case of billionaire Mark Cuban, the control was even stricter: he installed equipment and monitoring programs to see what applications his children use and to be able to stop their access to the phone when he deemed necessary.
