Yes, Bill Gates Limits His Kids' Screen Time

The Gates' home must have some pretty nice tech setups kids would love. Vista-enabled PC's that actually work. Xbox 360's for each child...

Before your imagination starts to take off, here's some interesting news from a business session in Ottawa, where Microsoft's Bill Gates told the crowd that he and his wife keep pretty close tabs on how much time their kids spend on computer games and the Internet.

Gates said his 10-year-old daughter wasn't a big computer user until this year, when she took a liking to an Xbox 360 game called Viva Pinata, which allows you to take care of a garden. "She could spend two or three hours a day on this Viva Pinata, because it's kind of engaging and fun," Gates told the crowd, Reuters reports.

So he and his wife, Melinda, decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time and an hour a day on weekends, in addition to what their oldest of three children needs to do on the computer for school work.

When his 7-year-old son asked, "Am I going to have limits like this my whole life?" Gates told a laughing audience, "No, when you move away you can set your own screen limits."

Now, I truly have no clue whether Bill Gates is the perfect parental role model. But I do find it interesting that a man who has helped shape the way we work and play so many hours on computers, the purveyor of the Xbox 360, limits his own kids' computer time.

Something to think about, as my own 10-year-old and her friend sit nearby playing for the last hour on Webkinz. I think it's time to get out of the house and do something in the real world.

Related:

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