PTC Commends Pinterest for Supporting Phone-Free Schools

LOS ANGELES (January 22, 2025) – The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) commended Pinterest for supporting phone-free schools for children and teenagers.

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told The Washington Post, “It’s so objectively clear that students will benefit from fewer distractions in the classroom. … It will benefit their learning.”

“Pinterest is wisely leading the way towards reduced technology access for children during their school day. A tech-distracted student isn’t ideal. Kudos to Pinterest for its efforts to eliminate these digital distractions in the classroom. We urge other tech platforms to voice their support,” said Melissa Henson, vice president, Parents Television and Media Council.

A PTC whitepaper, Smartphones in the Classroom: What States are Doing to Confront These Digital Distractions (July 2024), revealed that 28 U.S. states have made efforts to eliminate or restrict cellphones in classrooms, and includes parents’ guide on how to advocate for more restrictive cellphone policies in schools.

“Access to cellphones and social media has been a failure for students and their learning abilities. Additionally, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat have enabled predators to contact children, sexually explicit or other harmful content to be viewed by children, and powerful algorithms to target children. It is certainly a liability for schools to allow students to have cellphones in schools for all of these reasons. We hope more states and school districts will go ‘phone-free’ this year. With tech platforms like Pinterest stepping up in agreement, this is a major step in the right direction,” Henson said.

In August 2024, the National Education Association revealed that 90% of its members “support school policy prohibiting cell phone/personal devices during instructional time,” and cited several concerns, including that smartphones are distracting, social media use impacts the mental health of students, and that smartphones can be weaponized against classmates and teachers. A Pew Research Center study that found “68% of U.S. adults say they support a ban on middle and high school students using cellphones during class.”