Pinterest App Review – Is It Safe?

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What is Pinterest?

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Pinterest is an app and website built around images, videos, and idea-sharing. Users create “boards” where they can collect or “pin” content they find interesting, like recipes, DIY projects, fashion trends, home design, and specific aesthetics that best fit their interests. It’s often described as a digital scrapbook or inspiration hub.

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However, Pinterest is social media. So, teens can also encounter situations like explicit content, messaging, an algorithm, and risky online communities.

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Studies show that Pinterest users are 70% female, 22% men, and 7% unspecified. Social media has been known to cause problems with body image and comparison, and Pinterest is no different. In “The Anxious Generation,” Author Jonathan Haidt points to graphs showing more negative mental health impacts for girls starting with the widespread adoption of social media in the early 2010s. 

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The app is rated 13+ on iOS, Teen on Google Play.

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How does Pinterest Work?

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Users sign up with their name, an email address, and their birthday. The setup process is important because accurate age information activates Teen Accounts, which have unique controls.

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Once your account is set, you select a few interests and some posts you resonate with, so Pinterest’s algorithm can offer content it thinks you’ll like. 

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And that’s it! 

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Problems with Pinterest’s Teen Accounts

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Teen accounts on Pinterest aren’t restrictive enough.

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In our testing, we were still able to find plenty of explicit content and accounts with links to porn sites. Even with a 15-year-old teen account, we were able to find a backdoor to porn within seconds by searching for “sex.” While many terms were blocked when searching, “sex," “sexy,” and "hub" were not. 

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We also found content on depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal themes. 

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Pinterest makes it very easy to find entire collections with hundreds of posts related to the content you search for. Think of folders containing multiple files. If Pinterest suspected the content was explicit, it would blur the media and provide a warning. But even while using a teen account, we could simply click through the warning and view the explicit content anyway, which is a problem.

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Does Pinterest Have Parental Controls?

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In August 2023, Pinterest rolled out the following changes

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• All teen accounts under 16 have a temporary, unique profile link that is valid for 3 days. They can invite friends and family to follow their account, and once they reach 5 followers, they earn a permanent link they can share.
• All teen accounts under 16 can only send and receive messages from mutual followers (those who both follow each other).
• All accounts following teens under 16 will no longer be permitted to follow the teen accounts. They will need to receive a link to follow from the teen’s account to follow them again. This makes all teen accounts start fresh in deciding who follows them.
• Messaging and group boards are only available with permission.
• Individuals aged 16 and older can now opt for a private or public account.
• Caregivers can already opt to have a passcode for their teen's account, but now this process is easier and can be opted out of as well as updated protected settings.

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Additional details include:

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Teen accounts in Pinterest under age 16 are private and undiscoverable:

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Teen accounts under age 16 can also grant permission to interact. This is a walk back on previous lockdown measures. Pinterest still wants teens to interact with others, but only with approved contacts. The problem is that teens can add whoever they want:

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Parents can set a 4-digit passcode on changing the birthday and other key data. This is one of the changes we’re most pleased with because it’s a true parental control. A parent must be involved for the child to get past the barrier. In a world where so many parental rights are being diminished, this is something we approve of. 

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If <18, you can’t change your birthday to 18+ without verifying your age with a third party. This is Pinterest’s attempt at age verification, which is actually pretty aggressive. Tech Crunch went on to describe it like this:

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“For starters, it says it will expand its age verification process. By the end of this month, if someone who entered their age as under 18 tries to edit their date of birth on the Pinterest app, the company will require them to send additional information to its third-party age verification partner. This process includes sending a government ID or birth certificate and may also require the users to take a selfie for an ID photo.”

All of this would be an excellent safety measure if teen accounts actually prevented viewing harmful content. Again, in our testing, explicit content was easily found.

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No Face Filters or Weight Loss Ads Allowed (for mental well-being):

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What else do Parents Need to know about Pinterest?

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Harmful Content on Pinterest is Easily Found

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As we’ve mentioned, mature and explicit pins and boards were easy to find. Many of these accounts and images had links to porn sites, which were accessible within Pinterest with an in-app browser (this matters because Screen Time controls would show the time spent on Pinterest - not the internet browser). Sexually explicit poetry and writings were also easy to find.

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There was plenty of other harmful media, such as content related to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and suicidal themes. Pinterest has cracked down on “thinspiration” and “pro-ana” content, as many terms related to eating disorders were blocked. But harmful posts about extreme dieting, body shaming, unhealthy workouts, and “skinny girl aesthetics” still appear. This can provide a harmful online culture for girls who might already be struggling with their body image.

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Pinterest has Private Messaging

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Many parents often don’t realize that Pinterest includes private chat. Teen accounts attempt to decrease the risk of this happening by making their accounts private, and by forcing an invite to follow.

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Nonetheless, messaging on Pinterest exists, and it’s something parents should discuss.

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Pinterest’s Algorithm Works Quickly 

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Like other social platforms, Pinterest keeps users engaged by serving up increasingly intense content. For example, a teen searching for “workout motivation” may quickly be recommended extreme weight-loss content or sexualized fitness imagery.

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And the more you interact with specific kinds of content, the more Pinterest feeds that same content back to you. From workout videos to being skinny to extreme diets. It can intensify quickly. Or from crushes, to break-up content, heartbreak, depression, and suicidal themes. 

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Pinterest Uses External Links to Sell Products

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Similar to TikTok, many of the items within an image or video are linked and can be purchased. The main difference with Pinterest is that it doesn’t have its own store, but uses external links to purchase products. 

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These links can be harmless, but they can also contain mature content. In our findings, we were able to find pornography easily through external links found within users' accounts and in their posts. Even on a teen account.

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Pinterest Saves Viewing History

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This is good and one of the few helpful settings for parents. When viewing an account’s history, you can nudge the algorithm to what content you are interested in. This can help craft a healthier, more appropriate feed while checking on what your child has seen. 

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We recommend telling your child that you will be checking their history from time to time. Not because you don’t trust them, but because you don’t trust the algorithm at work and the content that’s available on Pinterest. 

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Here’s how to check viewing history on Pinterest:

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1. Select any tab in the bottom right corner.
2. Select the Profile in the top left corner.
3. Select “Refine your recommendations.”
4. You’ll then see the viewing history.
5. From here, you can “hide” content you don’t want the algorithm to push out by selecting the circle with a slash through it.

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Bottom Line – Is Pinterest Safe?

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Pinterest should be used with caution. Creative teens with involved parents should be fairly safe. However, remember it is social media.

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The 13+ age rating and existence of teen accounts can create a false sense of security and safety. For some families, Pinterest might not be worth the risk. Involved parents are what make or break Pinterest for us. 

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If you allow your child to use Pinterest or if they already have an account, talk to them about what they might see. Talk about pornography, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and suicide. Talk to them about everything you hope they wouldn’t see. Check in often and remind them they can always talk to you about anything they might see on Pinterest. 

¿Qué pasa si tengo más preguntas? ¿Cómo puedo mantenerme al día?

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¡Dos acciones que puedes tomar!

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1. Suscríbase a nuestro boletín de tendencias tecnológicas, el Descargar PYE. Aproximadamente cada 3 semanas, compartiremos las novedades, lo que está haciendo el equipo de PYE y un mensaje de Chris.
2. ¡Haga sus preguntas en nuestra comunidad privada de padres llamada The Table! No es otro grupo de Facebook. Sin anuncios, sin algoritmos, sin asteriscos. ¡Solo conversaciones honestas y críticas y aprendizaje profundo! Para padres que quieren «ir despacio» juntos. ¡Conviértase en miembro hoy mismo!

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