Investors in Apple want the company to limit the amount of time kids spend on the iPhone

Some Hedge Funds and retirement plans have made a fortune by purchasing Apple's shares. Despite relying on Apple to continue selling huge numbers of iPhone units to keep the stock moving forward, some of these funds are asking Apple to come up with some software that will allow parents to lower the amount of time that their kids spend using the device. Two such pools of money, Jana Partners, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, made their requests known in a letter they penned and mailed off to Apple this past Saturday.

The two funds together own about $2 billion of Apple stock, according to the Wall Street Journal. The letter has been published online at thinkdifferentlyaboutkids.com. In the letter, studies are quoted including one that showed a link between heavy smartphone usage by kids of a certain age, and a higher risk of suicide. Sleep deprivation is also mentioned as a risk for teens using smartphones for more than 5 hours a day. And kids who spend too much time perusing posts on social media are more likely to battle depression.


In the letter, the two funds write that if Apple can start giving special attention to the next generation, it would not only be good business, it would also be the right thing to do. The funds want Apple to try to determine what would be considered optimal usage of the iPhone, and come up with an easy way for parents to set usage limits for their kids' iPhone handsets.

source: ThinkDifferentlyaboutkids via WSJ