The CEO of one of the world’s most popular image-sharing platforms has called on governments around the world to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16. Pinterest CEO Bill Ready made the call in a detailed essay published in the Time Magazine, framing it as both a professional stance and a personal one. He likened the current tech CEOs with 20th-century tobacco executives, calling social media the ‘New Big Tobacco. ’
“As both a tech CEO and parent, I know legal compliance is not the same as safety. And I understand broad restrictions come with difficult tradeoffs. But social media, as it’s configured today, is not safe for young people under 16,” he said in the post, adding “Instead, it’s been designed to maximize view time, keeping kids glued to a screen with little regard for their well-being.
In courtrooms, we’ve seen how social media companies put profit over young people’s safety, sometimes with tragic outcomes. ”
Pinterest CEO calls social media ‘the largest social experiment in history’
Ready described children today as living through “the largest social experiment in history” which is conducted at enormous scale, with insufficient thought given to the consequences.
“The companies building these platforms gave insufficient forethought about the consequences, the worst of which include exposing them to unknown strangers and fueling screen addictions,” he said.
“This social experiment has been conducted at scale, and thus, the results are now painfully clear: rising anxiety and depression, eroding concentration, and classrooms competing for attention,” the CEO added, noting that “Our industry has had years to mitigate these harms, but has time and again failed,” he wrote. “The time for self-regulation has passed.”
He pointed to Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s as a model worth following, calling for other countries to adopt similar approaches. Australia passed its landmark legislation last year, making it one of the first countries in the world to impose a hard age restriction on social media access for minors.
Ready said that just like there has been set age limits on driving, smoking, and consuming alcohol, and people know that rules are imperfect and will sometimes be broken, “we must give our children a chance to develop before making consequential choices that could significantly affect their well-being.”
“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. It’s time to raise the bar on safety and well-being for kids. We need clearer rules, better tools for parents, and stronger accountability for platforms and social media apps,” the CEO said.
