Pinterest CEO says teenagers below 16 ought to be banned from social media (however not Pinterest)

Pinterest’s CEO has thrown his help behind an Australia measure banning social media for youthful teenagers and is looking for governments world wide to implement related bans. “Social media, because it’s configured at the moment, shouldn’t be secure for younger individuals below 16,” Prepared writes in a chunk published by Time. “We’d like a transparent normal: no social media for teenagers below 16, backed by actual enforcement, and accountability for cell phone working programs and the apps that run on them.”

Prepared is likely one of the highest-profile tech CEOs to come back out in favor of a broad ban on social media for teenagers. Which will additionally seem to be a daring stance for somebody who runs a platform with a person base that is greater than 50 % Gen Z, however Prepared does not suppose that ban ought to apply to Pinterest. Pinterest, as he notes, already bars teenagers below 16 from accessing messaging options and different social options. It additionally makes teen accounts personal by default.

A spokesperson for Pinterest confirmed the corporate has no plans to alter its personal insurance policies concerning customers below 16, and stated Pinterest considers itself a “visible search platform” not social media. Pinterest, like most social media and social media-adjacent firms, does not permit customers below 13 to enroll.

Social media or not, Pinterest has encountered baby safety-related points up to now. In 2023, NBC Information reported that Pinterest’s recommendation algorithm was surfacing photographs and movies of younger women to adults who had been “in search of” such content material. A few of these customers had created Pinterest boards that includes photographs of younger women with titles like “horny little women,” their investigation discovered. The corporate made profiles for teenagers below 16 personal and “not discoverable” six months later.

In keeping with Prepared, Pinterest’s reputation with youthful customers is proof its insurance policies are additionally good for the corporate’s enterprise. “Our expertise exhibits that prioritizing security and well-being doesn’t push younger individuals away; it builds belief,” he writes.