YouTube co-founder Steve Chen says he doesn’t want his kids glued to Shorts, or any short-form video platform for that matter.
Speaking in a newly published talk with Stanford Business School on July 25, Chen criticized the growing dominance of bite-sized videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
“I don’t know if I want my kids to be watching like short-form content as their only way, and they can’t be able to watch something that’s more than 15 minutes in length,” Chen said.
Chen, who has two kids and moved to Taiwan in 2019, argued that this type of content feeds shorter attention spans and is ultimately just entertainment for the moment.
“TikTok is entertainment, but it’s purely entertainment,” he explained. “Shorter form content equates to shorter attention spans.”
YouTube co-founder blasts short form content
According to Chen, a lot of parents have been forcing their kids to watch long-form videos and some actively limit their children’s exposure to fast-paced videos designed to be addictive.
“If they don’t get exposure to the short form content right away, then they’re still happy with that other type of content,” he explained.
He even floated the idea that platforms should implement time restrictions based on age groups to help curb usage.
“There’s this delicate balance between what is going to get users’ eyes and what’s going to monetize more versus what is actually useful,” he added.
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Chen’s comments come as YouTube is on pace to exceed $40 billion in annual ad revenue. According to Alphabet’s Q2 2025 earnings, YouTube pulled in $9.8 billion in ad revenue last quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase.
Shorts have become a major driver of that growth, but not without backlash. In July, YouTube responded to a viral post accusing Shorts of “ruining” the site, with users arguing short videos should live in a separate app. YouTube thanked users for their feedback and said it had been passed on to the Product team.
YouTube also made it so that paying users who subscribe to the site’s Premium Lite service are still subjected to ads when watching Shorts.
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