Pinterest aims to stay ahead of school smartphone restrictions by launching a new test for teenagers.

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      Pinterest is going beyond Instagram's suggestion for teens to take a break after an hour of scrolling; it is now encouraging students to focus during school. The popular visual platform is testing a new pop-up notification for younger users in the U.S. and Canada, prompting them to close the app and disable notifications while at school.

      As reported by The Verge, Pinterest is conducting a large-scale test of this prompt to help teenagers concentrate on their studies and to get ahead of smartphone restrictions implemented in schools throughout North America and globally. When students feel inclined to browse Pinterest for photo editing inspiration during class, a message will appear on their screen stating, “Focus is a beautiful thing. Stay present by putting down Pinterest and pausing notifications until the school bell rings.”

      This notification will only be shown to users aged 13 to 17 from Monday to Friday during standard school hours, which are typically from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Although the final bell at many middle schools rings later than 3 p.m., and most high schools start around 7:40 a.m., based on the author's experience.

      This focus prompt initiative follows several months after Pinterest CEO Bill Ready expressed his support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), alongside other social media and tech companies including Snap, Microsoft, and X (previously Twitter). The proposed legislation aimed to create guidelines for protecting minors from harmful content on social media platforms but failed to pass in the House of Representatives last year, facing criticism for potentially fostering censorship.

      Pinterest also claims it is the first social media platform to test this focus prompt for teenage users not only to adhere to state smartphone bans in schools — New York passed a law earlier this month that will prohibit smartphone use in public schools starting in the 2025-26 school year — but also to encourage overall digital wellbeing among students. In pursuit of this goal, the company announced a $1 million grant to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to support task forces in 12 U.S. school districts aimed at developing policies conducive to this objective.

      Cristina Alexander is a writer specializing in gaming and mobile topics at Digital Trends, providing fair coverage of issues in the gaming industry.

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