The YouTube co-founder and former tech boss doesn’t want kids to watch short videos.
The YouTube co-founder who helped pave the way for our modern, content-obsessed world is the latest technical stuff that appears in short-form videos for their impact on children.
Steve Chan, former chief technology officer of YouTube Google In 2006, in a lecture at Stanford University Graduate School earlier this month, I opposed the tiktokization of online life.
“I think Tiktok is entertainment, but it’s purely entertainment,” Chen said in his speech. Published YouTube Friday. “It’s just the moment. Shorter format content corresponds to shorter attention spans.”
Chen, who has two children, said he doesn’t want his child to consume only the short form of content and cannot watch more than 15 minutes. He said he knows other parents whose eye-catching colors and gimmicks force their children to watch long videos without hooking especially younger users. This strategy works well, he argues.
“If they don’t get exposed to short content right away, they’re still happy with the other types of content they still see,” he said.
Many companies had to hurry to deliver short content after the rise of Tiktok, he said, but these companies now have to balance monetization and motivations to make user attention “actually convenient.”
His previous company Companies that distribute short form videos, including YouTube, can face addictive issues. These companies need to add child safeguards with shorter formats of content, including age limits for apps and time limits for some users.
Chen joins the pioneering team of Openly Sam Altman and Elon Musk, with an alarm about the impact of social media on children. On a podcast Last week’s interviewAltman specifically called the “dopamine hit” in a short format video, “I think I’ll tinker with my child’s brain development in a very deep way.”
Musk, who owns social network X (Née Twitter), said in 2023 there are no restrictions on his children’s social media use, but added this “It could have been a mistake,” and encouraged parents to play a more active role in their children’s social media habits.
“I think maybe I’ll just limit social media a little more than I did in the past and be aware of what they’re seeing because at this point they’re programmed by some social media algorithms.