• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 20, 2023

Pinterest on Tuesday introduced the Inspired Internet Pledge at Cannes Lions, an initiative created in collaboration with the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital.

Inspired Internet Pledge is a call to action for tech companies and the broader technology ecosystem to unite with the common goal of making the internet a safer and healthier place for everyone, especially young people.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin in June introduced the Kids Online Safety Act to enhance children’s online safety and hold social-media companies accountable. This bipartisan legislation provides kids and parents with tools, safeguards, and transparency to protect against threats to children’s physical and mental health online and requires social media platforms to prioritize the interests of children.

Pinterest’s CEO Bill Ready and Pinterest CMO Andréa Mallard hosted a mainstage discussion on the topic of protecting children on the Internet. They unpacked technology’s impact on emotional well being, particularly for Gen Z -- and the industry’s role in fixing a problem that we helped to create.

The framework guides companies on how to take actions to support positive mental and emotional well being for kids on and offline. By putting mental health and emotional well being at the forefront of these efforts, the pledge guides companies to address the ongoing mental health crisis with accountability built in.

Each participating company will create its own supplementary addendum to the pledge, which should describe the specific actions it will take to implement its principles. Digital Wellness Lab will manage and make public the addendums to hold companies accountable to their commitments.

The move builds on Pinterest’s broader commitments to build a safer internet and places a priority on emotional well being.

Pinterest earlier this year partnered with nonprofit organization #HalfTheStory to create content promoting digital wellbeing for teens. It also released a research study with UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center that found 10 minutes a day of active engagement with inspiring content on Pinterest by Gen Z users buffers against rising burnout, stress and social disconnectedness.

Execs at Pinterest and the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital believe this is an opportunity for the entire tech ecosystem to collaborate to show ways to address this serious challenge. The two are asking participants to commit to three basic principles: 

1. Tune for well being: Understand which actions and content correlate with wellbeing outcomes to inform how to build and evolve products and services that support healthier experiences
2. Listen and act: Listen to and act on insights from people who have experienced harm online and the experts who support these communities, to inform the evolution of the policies and product
3. Commit to openness: Share lessons, creative solutions, and best practices collaboratively across the industry