Steve Jobs banned his children from using technology for these reasons

Steve Jobs’ sons already have their professional careers underway, but there was a time when the Apple co-founder needed to put aside his big-tech executive facet and embrace that of a family man. And in those moments, Jobs could become unrecognizable.

Nick Bilton, a New York Times writer, told it nearly a decade ago, when the iPad was still a device defined in its early generations. Said editor spoke to Jobs himself on the phone, and in a moment of curiosity he asked the CEO how his kids were using the iPad when they were just coming out in 2010. The answer? “You didn’t use it”.

“By the blacksmith’s house…”

“We’ve limited the amount of technology kids can use at home,” Jobs told Bilton. This stance has been echoed by Apple itself, a company that has severely limited adult content on its platforms. There is no pornography on the App Store, and violent content is heavily gauged by age ratings and features like screen time. mobbing online was already a problem back then. Jobs didn’t want the dangers of this technology to reach his children, and hence this habit of restricting access to devices was more than healthy.

So they talked about “history, books and a variety of subjects” at dinner at Steve Jobs’ house. Walter Isaacson was able to verify this at one of the dinners he attended to write Jobs’ biography, where he saw that his children did not feel the need to look for screens.

And so It’s something that has rubbed off on other top managers.: Former Wired exec Chris Anderson confessed in the same New York Times article that his children accused him of being a “fascist” for exercising the same boundaries. Blogger founder Evan Williams gave them access to a range of books with the advent of the iPad so they could read them whenever they wanted. Physical books, on paper. No screens.

To this day, Apple follows the same pattern, try to protect as much as possible what minors do with your devices. Screen Time has improved with each version of iOS, and iMessage continues to add measures aimed at keeping it safe from strangers. The advantage: Parents tend to see an iPhone as a minor’s first device over another mobile phone because they are aware of these protective measures.

image | Emily Wade

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