The CEO of Pinterest has thrown his support behind Australia’s move to ban social media for younger teens and is calling on governments around the world to enact similar bans. “Social media, as it is configured today, is not safe for youth under the age of 16,” Reidy wrote in an article published in 2015. Time. “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.”
Reidy is one of the highest-profile tech CEOs to come out in favor of blanket restrictions on social media for teens. It may seem like a bold stance for someone who runs a platform with a user base that is more than 50 percent Gen Z, but Ready doesn’t think the ban should apply to Pinterest. As they note, Pinterest already blocks teens under 16 from accessing messaging features and other social features. It also makes teen accounts private by default.
A Pinterest spokesperson confirmed that the company has no plans to change its policies regarding users under the age of 16, and said that Pinterest does not consider itself a social media but a “visual search platform”. Pinterest, like most social media and social media-related companies, does not allow users under the age of 13 to sign up.
Social media or not, Pinterest has faced child safety issues in the past. In 2023, nbc news It was reported that Pinterest’s recommendation algorithm was surfacing images and videos of people ranging from young girls to adults who were “looking for” such content. Their investigation found that some of those users had created Pinterest boards containing images of young girls with titles such as “sexy little girls”. The company created private and “not searchable” profiles for teens under 16 six months later.
According to Ready, Pinterest’s popularity among young users is proof that its policies are also good for the company’s business. “Our experience shows that prioritizing safety and well-being doesn’t drive young people away; it builds confidence,” they write.
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