Apple's Tim Cook Urges Parents To Limit Screen Time For Children

Apple's CEO Tim Cook insisted that parents should limit screen time for children in a recent interview with GQ magazine. He suggested that parents and administrators should set guidelines on how much time children spend on digital devices.

His comment came after a journalist said his young son was "obsessed" with his smartphone.

He said, "Kids are born digital, they're digital kids now. And it is, I think, really important to set some hard rails around it."

Mr Cook added, "We make technology to empower people to be able to do things they couldn't do, to create things they couldn't create, to learn things they couldn't learn. And I mean, that's really what drives us. We don't want people using our phones too much. We're not incentivized for that. We don't want that."

According to the company's filing released in September last year, Apple generated more than $205 billion in net sales for iPhones in fiscal 2022 alone.

To observe screen time, Mr Cook pointed out that parents should try "Screen Time" which tracks phone usage and allows parents to set limits on device usage, downloads and content for their children.

He said, "We try to get people tools in order to help them put the phone down."

Tim Cook added, "Because my philosophy is, if you're looking at the phone more than you're looking in somebody's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing."

He shared that he looks at his own screen time report "pretty religiously."

This is not the first time, he talked about phone usage. In 2020, he told the Outside Podcast that he had cut back on app notifications after finding out that his screen time was "very high".