Announcing early signatories to the Inspired Internet Pledge

Featured Image with Inspired Internet Pledge
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital announces early signatories to the Inspired Internet Pledge

A key step in making the internet a healthier place for young people

BOSTON (December 20, 2023) — The Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, a leading research and health-focused center with a mission to deepen our understanding of the positive and negative effects of tech and media on young people’s wellbeing, is announcing the early signatories of the Inspired Internet Pledge. The Pledge is a commitment by tech and media companies to make the internet a safer and healthier place for everyone, especially young people.

The Pledge provides an opportunity for tech and media companies and mission-driven organizations to work together to build a healthier internet. Pledge signatories commit to action aligned with three core principles over the course of each pledge year:

#1: Tune for emotional wellbeing

We commit to understanding which actions and content correlate with wellbeing outcomes on our platform. We will use this to inform how we build and evolve products and services that support healthier experiences on and offline.

#2: Listen to and act on insights from people who have experienced harm online

We commit to listening and learning from those who have experienced harm online and the experts who support these communities to inform the evolution of our policies and product.

#3: Share lessons collaboratively across the tech industry

Share lessons, creative solutions, and best practices collaboratively across the industry.

“The relationship between technology use and mental health is complex and nuanced,” says Dr. Michael Rich, Founder and Director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s. “This reality has created a responsibility and an opportunity for tech companies to create a healthier internet that will help young people build a positive sense of self and a productive relationship with technology.”

The first cohort of signatories to the Inspired Internet Pledge for 2024 includes:

  • Pinterest (founding signatory)
  • Blue Fever
  • Coalition to End Social Isolation & Loneliness
  • Foundation for Social Connection
  • #HalfTheStory
  • Immersiva
  • Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
  • Mental Health Foundation
  • Modulate
  • Our Own
  • Peer Health Exchange
  • Pinwheel
  • TikTok
  • Trust Elevate
  • WeAre8

Signatories have submitted comprehensive commitments that will drive their work commencing January 2024. During the year, signatories will engage in regular convenings with experts and leaders from across industries, workshopping the most challenging questions of the impacts of technology on young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. At the end of the year, the Digital Wellness Lab will issue an annual report on the progress made.

Companies, issue experts, and non-profit advisors, can sign on to the Pledge on a rolling basis. Further information can be found at inspiredinternet.org

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The Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital is a nonprofit research center seeking to understand and promote positive and healthy digital media experiences for young people, from birth through young adulthood. Our vision is an empathetic and respectful world in which our kids can grow up #healthy, #smart, and #kind. To learn more visit digitalwellnesslab.org

The Inspired Internet Pledge is a commitment by tech and media companies and the broader digital ecosystem to unite with the common goal of making the Internet a safer and healthier place for everyone, especially young people. Created with founding signatory Pinterest, the Pledge was announced in June 2023 at the Cannes Lions International Festival. To learn more visit inspiredinternet.org