Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, attends a conference at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, June 20, 2023. (Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
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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.
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.
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(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)
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