When he looks back over his career, Pinterest’s global chief business officer Lee Brown believes that he will be “proud” to have worked at a platform which prioritises the safety and mental health of its users.
In an exclusive interview with B&T while visiting Sydney from New York, Brown said that Pinterest has taken a leading role in its advocating for digital safety.
“We think platforms should be judged on their safety records, just like automotive companies,” Brown told B&T.
“In the future, I’ll be really proud of working at a platform like Pinterest that really values the positivity and mental well-being of users… That’s a risky position, a brave position, that Pinterest took. It could have been one of those positions that was not good. But it turned out to be the best thing we could have done.”
Brown’s visit, unintentionally, coincided with the release of the draft Digital Duty of Care legislation which proposed minimum standards for features and tools used on platforms as well as the ‘My Feed, My Way’ initiative designed to give Aussies control over social media algorithms.
“It’s still early on the Digital Duty of Care. We’re still working our way through the implications and how to implement it to make sure we’re abiding by it. But for the last several years, we have really been at the forefront of being tuned, engineered for positivity and positivie outcomes and really invested in the mental health of our users,” Brown said.
“It’s something we’ve been loud and vocal about across the globe and in the markets we operate in, making sure that local governments and policy advocates understand how our platform works compared to the other platforms. We’ve been really clear about private by default for users under 16, we’ve been vocal about age verification and making sure that where that falls and how we can be more helpful and constructive.”
Pinterest was not included in Australia’s under-16 social media ban legislation, which passed last year, along with Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO Play, Messenger, Roblox, Steam, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids.
In a March 2026 article published in Time,Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said he believed “governments should follow Australia’s lead”. So far, a handful have.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri was, coincidentally, also visiting Sydney at the same time as Brown. He denied that Instagram was a “clinically addictive” platform, following a landmark US court case.
Brown said that Pinterest’s advocacy and action in the space, combined with its more recent focus on finding reasons for people to go offline, is working.
“Gen Z is our largest demographic and our fastest-growing,” Brown said.
“They’re flocking to us because this is a place that cares about their mental health and wellbeing because it is a place that they can be themselves, they can curate their tastes, they can define their aesthetics. We see that in how they’re searching and how they’re behaving. They’re looking for phone-free activities. They’re looking for phones with no screens. They’re looking for things to do offline.
“It showed up in our brand campaign earlier this year when we took another brave stance in saying the best thing you can find online is what to do offline. For our platform to be engineered for positive outcomes and for things for you to find, buy and do next versus time spent and doom-scrolling, that’s a really differentiated and, I think, positive point of view.”
Gen Z currently accounts for more than half of Pinterest’s user base and the platform has recorded 11 straight quarters of double-digit user growth. Pinterest’s revenue also increased 18 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2026.
“I think more people on the platform in general is great. We want to make sure that we’re providing the breadth and depth of content and relevance for any demographic on the platform,” Brown said.
“The last 11 quarters have been double-digit growth in users… that isn’t happening anywhere else across any of the other platforms. It’s given us confidence that it’s the right strategy and that it’s providing the right platform and the right opportunity for people.”
Brown was in town to meet advertisers and agencies in the local market and he said Australia and New Zealand are a “big part” of the platform’s ambitions as it diversifies revenue across segments and geography. In Q2, the business recorded a 38 per cent year-on-year lift in ‘Rest of World’ revenue, which includes the Antipodes.
“They’re a big piece of the APAC region. It’s great because the advertisers here are more leaned-in and excited about the opportunities and innovating with platforms and innovating with ourselves,” he said.
“It’s a great place for us to come with new products and opportunities. We’re just about to launch Business Assistant within our self-service tool and it’s a companion that rides along with the advertisers to help optimise, provide suggestions and it’s conversational… It’s a great example of us bringing something to Australia first, right out of the box, to help scale and get learnings.
“[Australia] is a great innovation market,” he added.
Pinterest’s annual Presents upfront event will take place virtually on 17 September.
