Mean Dad

Bill Gates limits the time his 10-year-old daughter spends on the computer:

Gates said he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework.

Microsoft's new Vista software enables parents to control the Web sites their kids go to but also includes an audit log that records sites they have visited and whom they've been Instant Messaging.

Ooh, Mom will love that. She's such a control freak.

"Up to some age, to be determined, it's very appropriate for a parent to get a sense of what they're seeing out there and be able to have conversations about it," he said.

"My son said, 'Am I going to have limits like this my whole life?', and I said, 'No, when you move away you can set your own screen limits'," Gates recounted, to audience laughter.

I think it's important for the world's richest men to have children. After all, it's Warren Buffet's kids, the little ingrates, who convinced him repealing the estate tax was a lousy idea.