🎨 Art, music and story makers · 💬 Social apps and messaging
By Pinterest Inc.. Visit Pinterest
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
A visual search and bookmarking app where people save Pins (images and videos) to boards for recipes, crafts, outfits, school projects and room ideas. Teen accounts are private by default; 13 to 15 year olds cannot make their profile public, their boards are visible only to people they invite, and they can message only mutual followers. Comments on Pins teens create are off until 18. A teen and parent can set a passcode to lock privacy and social settings. Pinterest is testing school-day reminders to put the phone down.
Our take: One of the calmer social apps for teens 13+ who use it for ideas and projects; check the passcode lock with them.
| Ages it suits | 13+ |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | No one under 13 may use Pinterest. Over 13, you must also be above the minimum age of consent in your country, and if you are 13 to 18 you may only use it with a parent or guardian's permission. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free with ads (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | The child's own account |
| Ads | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes |
| The AI in it | Recommendation and visual-search models pick Pins; Pinterest trains machine learning models, including generative AI, on Pins. |
What's good
- Private by default for under-18s
- 13-15s cannot go public
- Messages only with mutual followers under 16
- Settings passcode a parent can hold
Watch for
- Ads and shopping throughout
- Personalization uses data from advertisers
- Pins train Pinterest's AI
- No parent dashboard
Data and privacy
Pinterest's privacy policy says it uses activity on and off Pinterest, including data from advertisers and the Pinterest Tag, to personalize content and ads, and trains its models, including generative AI, on Pins regardless of when they were posted. Under-18s in the EU and UK are opted out of ad personalization. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
No independent study of Pinterest's teen settings was found; the maker's own help pages describe the defaults.
Alternatives to Pinterest
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Apple Messages and FaceTime (Communication Safety)
Apple · ages any age with a parent-made child account; teens 13-17
Worth turning on for any child with an iPhone or iPad; pair it with contact limits for younger kids.
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BeReal
BeReal SAS · ages 13+
A lower-pressure social app for teens 13+ with real-life friends; younger kids should wait.
Desk researchFree, with paid extras
Discord (Family Center, teen-by-default)
Discord Inc. · ages 13+
Workable for teens 13+ who mainly chat with real-life friends, with Family Center on; too open for younger children.
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Instagram (Teen Accounts)
Meta · ages 13+
For teens 13+ only with supervision set up in Family Center; parents should not rely on Teen Accounts alone.
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Kinzoo Messenger
Kinzoo · ages young kids to tweens, on a parent-made account
A good first messenger for under-13s whose friends will also join; check the in-app store settings.
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Lemon8
TikTok USDS Joint Venture (US) · ages 13+
No reason for kids under 13; for teens it carries the same data terms as TikTok without TikTok's parent tools.
Where these facts come from
- https://policy.pinterest.com/en/terms-of-service
- https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy
- https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/teen-safety-options
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pinterest/id429047995
- https://heatleyss.eq.edu.au/support-and-resources/cybersafety/social-media-minimum-age
- Reviews on G2: https://www.g2.com/products/pinterest/reviews
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.