Bill ready has spent years trying to make Pinterest safer for new userslong before regulators began zeroing in on the issue. As governments and parents intensify scrutiny of social media’s impact on teenagers, that focus is starting to pay off for the company.
“We’ve long been focused on creating a more positive platform; one focused on time well spent, not just time spent,” the CEO told analysts during PinterestFirst quarter earnings call yesterday (May 4). “This foundation is becoming even more important as the wider online ecosystem faces increased scrutiny around youth mental health, wellbeing and online safety.”
Gati, who previously served as Googlepresident of commerce, PayPal’s COO AND Come on‘s CEO, became Pinterest’s top executive in 2022. Since then, he has steered the platform toward stricter protections for young users, including a 2023 policy that made accounts for users under 16 private by default.
When Pinterest introduced the change, “a lot of people thought it would hurt our relationship with Gen Z,” Ready said. Instead, Gen Z has become the platform’s largest and fastest-growing audience, now accounting for more than half of users. At the end of the first quarter, Pinterest had 631 million monthly active users, up 11 percent from a year ago.
Investors responded positively. Pinterest shares rose 9 percent today after the company reported first-quarter revenue of $1 billion, an 18 percent increase that beat Wall Street estimates. The company posted a net loss of $73.5 million, but adjusted EBITDA came in at $207 million, up 20 percent year over year and ahead of expectations.
AI has also played a role in the company’s growth. Ready credited ten straight months of “double-digit user growth” to improvements in AI-driven personalization and content curation Earlier this year, Pinterest announced plans to cut up to 15 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring that shifts more resources to AI development.
However, Ready has framed AI as a tool to enhance, not undermine, user security. After taking over as CEO, he sought to ensure that technology avoided amplifying harmful or inflammatory material and instead featured more constructive content. He has also urged other tech leaders to prioritize moderation, product design, transparency and protections for teens in their AI efforts.
In a recent article for Time magazineReady praised Australia’s ban on social media use by children under 16 — although Pinterest is exempt. “I believe that if tech companies fail to prioritize youth safety, other governments should follow Australia’s lead,” he wrote, describing today’s youth as “living the greatest social experiment in history.” Other nations, including Austria, Denmark, France and Great Britain, are considering similar rules nationwide.
The push for stricter rules comes as big tech companies face growing legal and political pressure over their effects on young users. At the beginning of this year, Meta and Google were found negligent in a California case involving features linked to harming a minor’s mental health, a ruling that could open the door to broader liability for addictive design.
Pinterest has tried to position itself on the other side of that debate. The company has supported measures such as phone-free schools and age verification requirements in app stores.
“We’re seeing a clear trend where parents, policymakers and governments are raising the bar on online safety for young people,” Ready told analysts yesterday. “This is a conversation we’ve been pushing for a long time — we believe that social media companies should compete on their safety records, the same way car manufacturers compete on their safety ratings.”
