Google CEO Sundar Pichai limits his family’s access to TV, cell phones

Google CEO Sundar
Pichai.
Stephen
Lam/Reuters

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai
  recently sat down for an interview with the New York Times
  as part of the publication’s series of conversations with top
  executives about leadership.
• Pichai told the Times that he tries to limit his kids’ screen
  time at home. The TV in his home isn’t easily accessible and
  requires “activation energy” to watch, the CEO said.
• Pichai’s comments are echoed by many tech executives, like
  Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who
  have revealed in the past that they’re strict about how much
  access they let their kids have to technology.

When Google CEO Sundar Pichai goes home on the weekends, the tech
exec tries to cut back on his family’s access to technology.

In an interview with the New York
Times published Thursday, Pichai discussed the role that
technology plays in his home life. Even though Pichai sits at the
helm of a company on the forefront of cutting-edge technology, he
says that his 11-year-old son —
who reportedly mines Ethereum — doesn’t have a phone.

Pichai said his family has limited access to a television,
too. 

“At home, our television is not easily accessible, so that
there is ‘activation energy’ before you can easily go watch TV,”
Pichai told the Times. “I’m genuinely conflicted, because I see
what my kids learn from all this.”

Pichai also said that although he makes a concerted effect
to limit his own interactions with technology on the weekend, he
himself struggles to let go of his devices when he’s away from
work.

Pichai isn’t the only big tech player who is strict in policing
his children’s technology use. Over the years, tech elites
including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have said
they limit the amount of screen time their kids have at home.

Read more: 


Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs raised their kids tech-free — and it
should’ve been a red flag

In the interview with Pichai, the Times also asked the CEO about
growing up in India, the ability of tech companies to police
their content, and how Silicon Valley has changed since he first
arrived on the tech scene.

Pichai also briefly addressed the
employee protests that happened at Google earlier this month
over how the company’s has dealt with sexual misconduct in the
past. Nearly 20,000 employees staged a mass walkout over Google’s
actions, and Pichai acknowledged that the company “clearly got
some things wrong.”

The Times interview was published Thursday, hours before
Google announced it would be changing its sexual harassment
policies to end forced arbitration.

You can read Pichai’s full interview over at the New York
Times. 

Get the latest Google stock price here.