Pinterest users sexualize photos of children, says NBC – 24/03/2023 – Tech

Pinterest users who put together images of children in collections under the headings “forbidden pleasures”, “sexy little girls” and the like, receive recommendations from the social network for more profiles that sexualize minors, according to a report by the American broadcaster NBC News.

The photos saved and commented on by an audience made up mostly of adult men depict children in bathing suits or showing their tongues, for example, according to the TV channel.

After creating an account to track profiles of criminals, NBC News says it began receiving recommendations for more content from the app.

In response, the social network says it has increased reporting possibilities and hired more content moderators.

Pinterest is known for putting together image galleries for inspiration. In the US, the social network was in 2022 the second most popular app of its kind among minors, behind only TikTok, according to a survey by the parental control app Qustodio.

The social network maintains an indicative rating of 13 years. It does not, however, require documents for registration.

After the report, Pinterest started to allow reports in new categories such as “nudity, pornography or sexualized content”, “self-harm” and “misinformation”. Before, the social network received complaints only for “spam” and “inadequate cover image”. When reporting content with sexual references, the user can specify whether the publication involves minors.

Pinterest spokeswoman Crystal Espinosa told NBC News that the company “took immediate, broad, and aggressive action to shut down thousands of bad actors and anyone else who connected with content in a harmful way.” The platform removed links to abusive content found by NBC News.

The report of Sheet questioned Pinterest via email and social networks, but had no response until the text was published.

The social network has about 440 million active users around the world. In Brazil, there are 46 million and, in the US, 86 million, according to company data.

Canadian Center for Child Protection NGO director Stephen Sauer repeated NBC News’ method and had similar results. “This material is innocently posted and is now used to stoke sexual interest in children,” he said in an interview with the station.

According to Pinterest’s Community Guidelines, the social network is “not a place for pornography”. The company limits distribution or removes explicit and adult content such as the following:

• fetish pictures
• Detailed sexual descriptions
• Graphic representations of sexual activity
• Nude images where the poses, camera angles or props suggest pornographic intent

“We do our best to differentiate pornography from other content that may involve nudity,” the network states in its policies. Pinterest says it strives to allow content about sexual health, breastfeeding, mastectomies, etc.