Pinterest shares support for cellphone-free schools
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Center for Humane Technology founder Tristan Harris and Axios' Sara Fischer. Photo: Dani Ammann Photography for Axios
Pinterest's move to support cellphone-free schools is a "bold step," but the social media industry still needs a shift in incentives, tech ethicist Tristan Harris told Axios during an event on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.
Why it matters: A former design ethicist at Google, Harris founded a nonprofit, the Center for Humane Technology, to call attention to harms caused by social media and AI and identify and advocate for solutions.
Catch up quick: Just prior to Harris' talk, Pinterest's chief legal and business affairs officer Wanji Walcott said CEO Bill Ready would soon announce Pinterest will be the first tech company to support cellphone-free schools.
- Pinterest will also add a pop-up to its platform that appears to teenage users during school hours and suggests putting their phone down, Walcott said during a sponsored segment with Axios.
What he's saying: "I think that that's an amazing move," Harris said, when asked about efforts by tech platforms to push for cellphone-free schools.
- "It's a really bold step and actually Pinterest has done a lot, just to acknowledge them, in terms of design changes to care not just about maximizing engagement."
- "The challenge that I see is that the incentives for the overall industry have not changed.... It's the race for engagement, maximizing time on site, time on screen that creates the race to the bottom of the brainstem."
The big picture: More states have been banning or restricting cellphones in schools, Axios' April Rubin reports. Eight states have enacted policies and at least 11 states are considering legislation, per health nonprofit KFF.
- The policies have largely received bipartisan support, though some parents and teachers have spoken out against them, arguing that cellphones are important for safety and connectedness.
- "We want to do our part as we think about how do we ensure better youth mental health outcomes," Walcott told Axios. "How do we ensure that this next generation is not just kind of stuck to the phone and kind of scrolling and scrolling?"
