How Tech Executives Limit Their Kids’ Screen Time, and Trump’s Race to Finish His Ballroom

**Tracy Mumford** (0:00)
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**Tracy Mumford** (0:34)
From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, August 19th. Here's what we're covering.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:46)
They knew their product was dangerous, and they lied to the public. They told the world that their product was safe, that it wasn't dangerous.

**Tracy Mumford** (0:55)
This week, the tech giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is in court again, defending itself over claims it harmed kids by getting them addicted to social media.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:05)
Their deception, their lies are at the core of our case, and we are excited about how our first day at trial went.

**Tracy Mumford** (1:14)
Four states, California, New Jersey, Colorado and Kentucky, are behind the suit, arguing that Meta, quote, harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. It's one of thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies working their way through the courts. Earlier this month, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay nearly a billion in penalties for violating consumer protection laws. In this case, the states have said they will push for penalties nearing $200 billion, almost 15% of Meta's entire stock value. At the trial, they say they plan to use internal documents and interviews with current and former Meta employees to show there were discussions inside the company about how features like infinite scroll and beauty filters contributed to compulsive use and anxiety among young users. Still, the states claim, the company promoted its platforms as safe.
Meta has argued that it was truthful to consumers and that it's being singled out for challenges faced by all companies on the Internet, such as the difficulty of verifying users' ages. It also said it added safeguards to protect young users.
Meanwhile, with the intense national focus on kids, social media and screen time, The Times has been looking at how Silicon Valley executives handle tech at home.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:43)
You know, having built Snapchat and then also specs, just how do you think about devices and your kids?
Well, we've got a real range. We've got four boys, two, six, seven, and 15 So for the two-year-old, it's like zero screen time.

**Tracy Mumford** (2:58)
Over the years, high-profile execs like Evan Spiegel, the founder of Snapchat, have talked about strict limits. Peter Thiel, who was a long-time Facebook board member, gave a similar answer about how much screen time his kids get.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:12)
Not very much, and I think that's very... What's not very much? An hour and a half a week. Hour and a half a week? Something like that.
How old are your kids? Three and a half, five years.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:22)
So did Mark Zuckerberg.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:24)
I don't generally just want my kids to be sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:30)
In all, they have acknowledged that the older their kids get, the more they'll inevitably be on screens. But with that in mind, Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI just launched Chat GPT for Teens this week, said he'd prefer to air on the side of caution when it comes to his very young son.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:49)
I don't know when I would let him talk to AI, but I'd rather be on the late end of what's reasonable there, not the early end.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:56)
Of course, I think it's great and he'll grow up in a world where computers are smarter than him and do anything he wants.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:01)
But I want to play in the dirt for now.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:14)
Now, two quick updates on the Trump administration. First, the government of Liberia has announced that it is going to take 1200 deportees from the US, the latest so-called third country deportation agreement that the White House has reached. For more than a year, the administration has been offering millions of dollars to foreign governments to take immigrants that the US is having trouble deporting to their countries of origin. It struck at least 35 of these controversial deals, which often send migrants to countries they have no ties to. The agreement with Liberia appears to be one of the largest of its kind. In a statement, the Liberian government said it didn't receive anything in exchange. It also said it would welcome the deportees as guests, who would be free to leave the country or remain and apply for asylum. The first group of deportees is expected to arrive in Liberia tomorrow.