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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates prohibited his children from owning smartphones until they reached the age of 14. He also established family rules, such as no phones at the dinner table and setting a “screen sunset” time to ensure proper sleep schedules. Gates explained that these restrictions were meant to balance the benefits of technology, such as homework and staying in touch with friends, while avoiding excess use.
Also, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams chose not to give his children iPods or similar gadgets. Instead, his household is filled with hundreds of physical books for his children to read. The Williams family limits Internet access for their children, focusing on learning through DVDs rather than unrestricted online browsing.
I fully support setting clear limits because smartphones fill people’s minds with nonsense, which we should protect children from as much as possible. If parents feel the necessity and importance of restricting children’s Internet access then they will find various ways of doing so. But first this importance needs to be instilled in the parents.
Of course, we live in the smartphone generation, but everything depends on the purpose and the amount of time spent. When children spend hours a day glued to devices, then the devices absorb their minds. They stop developing as real human beings. We need to understand human nature, that without boundaries, we simply lose ourselves. Therefore, we have to impose serious restrictions on a child’s exposure to the Internet, allowing access only to very specific, carefully selected spaces, preferably only for educational and meaningful communication.
If it were up to me, I would develop educational and developmental programs tailored for children and youth. We are animals by nature and thus need to be shown what is right and wrong, what works and what does not. Only after a child internalizes this structure can we slowly and carefully expand their world.
Unfortunately, today the adult generation fails to properly coordinate the upbringing of the next generation. There is no serious plan, no unified system for raising children into responsible and developed human beings. Society lets children drift wherever the current pulls them.
When we look at the broader picture, humanity clearly shows that it does not care about this generation. A small amount of parents still try to do something, and even then, their hands are tied. Parents get up early, rush their children off to school or kindergarten, head to work, and return home exhausted. They sit in front of the TV while their children bury themselves in their devices. Most do not know what the children did all day, and that cycle repeats itself endlessly. The system itself traps parents inside these limitations.
Moreover, while Gates and Williams provide examples of restricting their own children’s use of the Internet, they still provide no real comprehensive example to follow. I do not believe their children will grow up to be particularly different. They, too, will live in the same society as everyone else. If the billionaires were truly wise, they would realize that it is not enough to isolate their own children. Instead, they need to change the world itself to guarantee a different future for their descendants.
If they fail to transform society for the better, their personal efforts will collapse. Their children will still drown in the same broken reality. They might drive luxury cars or sail yachts, but they will still remain trapped in a world that offers no real escape, no true fulfillment.
To make a better future for their children and grandchildren, they need to change the entire social environment. Their children’s true environment is not limited to their homes or schools; it is the world at large. To protect their descendants, they must work to remake the world for everyone.
Changing the world, however, does not mean handing out money or setting up new systems. It means focusing on genuine, meaningful, and connection-enriched education as a top priority. Only through a proper upbringing can we create a new human being, a new society, and then we can pave a more harmonious, peaceful, and happy environment for future generations.
Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on October 9, 2024. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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