Pinterest CEO Bill Ready is urging world leaders to ban social media for youth under 16 in a LinkedIn post on March 20.
The call comes amid a trial in Los Angeles about youth social media use. Google and Meta face allegations that their apps are fueling a mental health crisis among young people, with the jury deliberating on a verdict.
Ready wrote in an essay posted to his LinkedIn account: “We need a clear standard: no social media for teens under 16, backed by real enforcement, and accountability for mobile phone operating systems and the apps that run on them.”
Pinterest is an image-sharing platform. Ready cited Australia’s ban on social media for youth under 16 as a model.
In calling for the ban, Ready is taking a different stance than the leaders of the world’s largest technology companies, which are facing growing pressure from regulators, courts, and lawmakers to change how children and teens use their products due to mental health impacts.
According to Pinterest’s website, users must be 13 years old to sign up for an account in the U.S. The company has been positioning itself as a go-to site for Generation Z, defined as people born between 1997 and 2012.
As per Apptopia, a research firm, one-third of Pinterest’s users are ages 17-25.