Pinterest CEO calls for ban on social media for youth under 16

By Courtney Rozen

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) – Pinterest CEO Bill Ready called on world leaders to ban social media for youth under 16 in a LinkedIn post on Friday.

Ready posted his statement while a trial is under way in Los Angeles about youth social media use. Google and Meta face allegations that their apps are fueling a youth mental health crisis. The jury is deliberating on a verdict. 

“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,” Ready wrote in an essay posted on his LinkedIn account. Pinterest is an image-sharing platform.

Ready pointed to Australia’s ban on social media for youth under 16 as a model. Pinterest’s spokesperson declined to comment on the post. 

In calling for the ban, Ready is taking a different position than the leaders of the world’s largest technology companies. Those companies are facing growing pressure from regulators, courts and lawmakers to change how children and teens use their products because of their mental health impacts. 

Users must be 13 to sign up for a Pinterest account in the U.S., according to the company’s website.

The company in recent years has tried to position itself as a go-to site for Generation Z, broadly defined as people born between 1997 and 2012. A third of Pinterest’s users are ages 17-25, according to Apptopia, a research firm.

(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Additional reporting by Kritika Lamba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)