Tech execs protect their kids from their own products. America’s children deserve the same

When the Big Tech trade group NetChoice sued to block California’s new law boosting online protections for kids, it painted a dystopian picture of the legislation’s impact.

The law would force websites to be “roving censors of the internet” and cause them to “stifle important resources, particularly for vulnerable youth,” NetChoice said in its lawsuit.

The litigation is part of an industry campaign to derail legislative efforts to shield children from the toxic impact of social media. But even as Big Tech’s proxies try to fend off regulations that could harm the industry’s bottom line, it’s worth remembering that Silicon Valley executives often endorse restricting tech products—for their own kids.

As detailed in news reports in recent years, members of the tech elite have directed their nannies to keep their kids away from addictive screens and sent their kids to a private San Francisco school with a strict no-screens policy. “I just wanted our kids to have a technology-free start, so that they would be playing and running around and picking up leaves and getting dirty, rather than sitting inside and watching a screen,” said one parent.

This attitude extends to the C-suite. Susan Wojcicki, who recently stepped down as YouTube CEO, admitted in 2017 that she sometimes confiscated her kids’ phones. Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, revealed in 2018 that his 11-year-old son did not have a phone. The following year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that he didn’t want his young children sitting in front of a computer “for a long period of time.”

One former Facebook executive, Chamath Palihapitiya, put it more bluntly, saying that he felt “tremendous guilt” about helping to build the social network and that his children “aren’t allowed to use that shit.”

These admissions have been largely forgotten with the speed of the news cycle over the past five years. But taken together, they reveal an industry that tries to shield its kids from the dangers of technology—while touting the very same products for everyone else. It begs the question: Why shouldn’t America’s young people receive the same levels of protection that Silicon Valley parents provide for their own?

While tech executives have gone quieter lately on the subject of how they regulate tech use for their offspring, there are signs that they continue to harbor private doubts about the products they market to the world. When tech-focused publication The Information surveyed more than 1,000 subscribers last year, it found that “Silicon Valley’s children spend far less time on screens than the average American kid.”

There is growing awareness in this country about the dangers that social media pose for young people. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen helped to pull back the curtain in 2021 when she released internal Meta documents showing, among other things, that the company knew Instagram is toxic for many teen girls. Reports by the Tech Transparency Project have demonstrated the failures of YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook when it comes to protecting kids from content on drugs, eating disorders, and other harmful behaviors.

But Big Tech companies continue to assure people that their platforms are safe for children. YouTube describes itself as a “vibrant community of kids and family content creators.” Google talks about “giving kids and teens a safer experience online,” and Meta touts its “commitment to child protection.” Google, meanwhile, is making a huge push to get its products into America’s classrooms for children as young as five.

By trying to shield their kids from the ill effects of the products they make, tech leaders are following a pattern seen in industries like Big Tobacco, whose executives, in congressional testimony 25 years ago, conceded that they didn’t want their children to smoke.

While Big Tech companies often hold up their parental control features as proof that they provide tools to protect minors, the fact that the industry’s leaders often take more aggressive measures to shield their own offspring from the excesses of screen time and social media shows the hollowness of their marketing messages.

Lawmakers considering bills to protect kids online need to get wise to this double standard when they encounter resistance from the tech industry and its trade groups. If tech leaders think their kids need more robust online guardrails, it’s safe to say the rest of the country’s children do too.

Katie A. Paul is the director of the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), where she specializes in tracking extremism, disinformation, and criminal activity on online platforms, such as Facebook. Paul also serves as cofounder and codirector of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project and is a founding member of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO).