Pinterest / Pornterest

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Gordon_Sims

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This is part question, part warning. Over the weekend I ran into several occasions where, while looking stuff up, the only way I could get to the content in question was via Pinterest. I found that the only way you could follow the link was by having an account. I gave in and opened one, looked up what I wanted and was going to forget about it, but I later went back and looked at Pinterest to get a better idea of what it was. I have a lot of friends who use it but I’ve never paid it a lot of attention. I found that 1/4 to 1/3 of the pages suggested to me were pornographic to some degree. Does anyone who has dealt with the site know if there’s any way to block that sort of content? I didn’t see any options in their setup screen and the searches I did on Google took me to Pinterest pages for parental control software, or more porn. The suggested sites and images came through even when I turned on parental controls. I don’t want to block the site entirely in case I find myself having to look stuff up via them again, but I also don’t want my kids to be able to go to the site and see that sort of garbage.
 
What? I have never used the site before, but I’ve never heard of anyone finding porn on it! Are you sure you aren’t exaggerating?
 
I suppose it would depend on what is being searched for. I personally have a pinterest account too, and all I ever see are recipes, preschool craft ideas and DIY hair tricks for ladies with extra long hair like I have. But those are the only things I’ve ever searched for, so it’s all it recommends. 🤷

In re-reading my comment, it looks like I am suggesting that you have searched for inappropriate material and that’s not what I meant by it. I just mean maybe some of the things that the people you are clicking into (following the link) are into some questionable stuff.
 
What sort of stuff are you talking about? Pinterest has a pretty strict “No adult content” policy. I’ve only run across something “pornographic” on one occasion, and it was just comic book nudity, nothing explicitly pronographic
 
I, too, have only ever seen one bad image on Pinterest, that was reported and removed while I was still on the same page. Take advantage of the flagging function. I’m not sure why that’s happening to you, but it shouldn’t be. Perhaps if you’re searching something like video games? They try to sell to that market, so that might be it.
 
I have used Pinterest for several years and not had one episode of anything inappropriate happen. I appreciate the warning but have to wonder what has gone on in your experience.
 
FrenzyJen said:
I, too, have only ever seen one bad image on Pinterest, that was reported and removed while I was still on the same page. Take advantage of the flagging function. I’m not sure why that’s happening to you, but it shouldn’t be. Perhaps if you’re searching something like video games? They try to sell to that market, so that might be it.
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Video games are one of the few things I search on pinterest and, while I’ve seen some suggestive stuff, never anything pornographic.
 
I’m confused, because I also have never seen anything pornographic on pinterest.
 
Gosh, that surprises me! I’m on Pinterest a LOT and the worst thing I’ve seen was an atheist meme! If anything, there are some gorgeous Catholic inspiration resources on it. You may just have been unlucky in your searches but; since everything pinned shows up on the first page, as they’re added, I would be very surprised at the percentages you stated.
 
There is no content filter on Pinterest, so the only thing you can do is block the site until you’re confident that the adult content is flagged and removed quickly enough. Most social media platforms have struggled to keep pornography off of their sites at one time or another.
 
I’ve used Pinterest…at the prodding of a dear friend here on CAF!
All I’ve ever seen is recipes and pictures of flowers. LOL!
What were you searching for???
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
I’m confused, because I also have never seen anything pornographic on pinterest.
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Pinterest suggests images based on your browsing history as well as images that you’ve searched for and pinned in the past. Basically if you don’t go looking for porn on pinterest you aren’t going to find it.
 
Just to add-on, my wife uses Pinterest ALL THE TIME and she’s never spoken of anything inappropriate.
 
Allegra said:
What? I have never used the site before, but I’ve never heard of anyone finding porn on it! Are you sure you aren’t exaggerating?
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That’s surprising. The suggested sites it gave me were full of porn. Everything from actual porn stars to naked pictures of Beyonce (no idea if they were real) popped up. Although there were no hardcore/XXX pictures, there was a fair amount of full-frontal nudity and tons of pictures of women in wet T-shirts or other fully see-through tops, as well as women in so little clothing it may as well have been full nudity. Except for one woman I work with who pins inappropriate stuff from time to time, I’d only ever seen crafts, recipes, home/decorating type stuff and healthy lifestyle stuff showing up from other people’s Pinterest activity on Facebook. I scrolled down through 4-5 screens thinking there had to be something wrong but as much as 1/3 of every page was pornographic. There was also lots of comic book/anime style artwork along the same lines, so including that would take it up to at least half of what I saw being inappropriate or pornographic. I didn’t see a single suggestion for crafts, etc. even though that’s what brought me to Pinterest in the first place.

As far as it drawing on my own browsing history, there’s no way what I saw was a result of that because I don’t browse/search for porn and don’t visit those sorts of websites. I was about to say that I’ve never been on a pornographic site with this PC, but that’s not true. Someone signed me up for an account with an adult video company a month or so ago (I found out when I started getting spam from them). I visited their website to cancel the account. I don’t believe that single instance would have caused my Pinterest suggestions to be completely filled with those sorts of sites.

Since they have no way to filter content I’ll definitely be blocking them on our family PC. I may block them on this one as well. I do a fair amount of crafts so it’s really annoying that I’d have to block them entirely over this.
 
Gordon_Sims said:
That’s surprising. The suggested sites it gave me were full of porn. Everything from actual porn stars to naked pictures of Beyonce (no idea if they were real) popped up. Although there were no hardcore/XXX pictures, there was a fair amount of full-frontal nudity and tons of pictures of women in wet T-shirts or other fully see-through tops, as well as women in so little clothing it may as well have been full nudity. Except for one woman I work with who pins inappropriate stuff from time to time, I’d only ever seen crafts, recipes, home/decorating type stuff and healthy lifestyle stuff showing up from other people’s Pinterest activity on Facebook. I scrolled down through 4-5 screens thinking there had to be something wrong but as much as 1/3 of every page was pornographic. There was also lots of comic book/anime style artwork along the same lines, so including that would take it up to at least half of what I saw being inappropriate or pornographic. I didn’t see a single suggestion for crafts, etc. even though that’s what brought me to Pinterest in the first place.

As far as it drawing on my own browsing history, there’s no way what I saw was a result of that because I don’t browse/search for porn and don’t visit those sorts of websites. I was about to say that I’ve never been on a pornographic site with this PC, but that’s not true. Someone signed me up for an account with an adult video company a month or so ago (I found out when I started getting spam from them). I visited their website to cancel the account. I don’t believe that single instance would have caused my Pinterest suggestions to be completely filled with those sorts of sites.

Since they have no way to filter content I’ll definitely be blocking them on our family PC. I may block them on this one as well. I do a fair amount of crafts so it’s really annoying that I’d have to block them entirely over this.
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Go back to your browser history. Sometimes even one keystroke can take you way far from where you intended to go…maybe you intended to go to Pinterest…but ended up elsewhere due to one misplaced character.
God bless.
 
pianistclare said:
Go back to your browser history. Sometimes even one keystroke can take you way far from where you intended to go…maybe you intended to go to Pinterest…but ended up elsewhere due to one misplaced character.
God bless.
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Double checked my history. It was all following links that took me straight there so I couldn’t have fat-fingered anything. I got the same content suggestions when I confirmed my email address.
 
Gordon_Sims said:
Double checked my history. It was all following links that took me straight there so I couldn’t have fat-fingered anything. I got the same content suggestions when I confirmed my email address.
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I meant to add that I don’t plan on going back to see whether they’re still offering me all sorts of depraved content. I think that’d be too much like my one friend who “accidentally” stumbles on porn by entering “completely innocent” search terms into Google then following the links for whatever pictures pop up.
 
pianistclare said:
Go back to your browser history. Sometimes even one keystroke can take you way far from where you intended to go…maybe you intended to go to Pinterest…but ended up elsewhere due to one misplaced character.
God bless.
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this. Or your computer might have a virus.

Years ago when I had dial up, our pc got infested with some virus, and everything got rerouted to a dirty page.
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
this. Or your computer might have a virus.

Years ago when I had dial up, our pc got infested with some virus, and everything got rerouted to a dirty page.
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I did a thorough virus/spyware scan a few days before going to Pinterest so I’m pretty sure I’m clean. The bulk of what I search on is Catholic stuff, which also constitutes the biggest portion of my Facebook likes. I’ll take the words of those saying this isn’t normal for Pinterest, but it still doesn’t shed any light on why I got the results I did.
 
No, this happened to me. Mostly, pinterest is a pretty family-friendly place, but I was clicking through a comic book enthusiast’s site and came across a 50’s pinup, and another time I was looking up “menstrual cycle” and found some definitely non-medical pictures.

But, like I said, moat of the content is pretty benign.
 
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