Pinterest

Parent warning to anyone with a child using this app. The algorithms on this site can lead to horrific, traumatic content on suicide, death and drug use. Stuff a person can’t unsee. And the site will keep populating that content for you once the “artificial intelligence” determines that is your interest. You will even get emails reminding you of updates to horrific content. I will take heat here for being “irresponsible” although my spouse and I try our very best. We very very nearly lost our daughter to this app. Our 13 yo daughter signed up for this during the pandemic. My only use of this site had literally been for a few recipes and home remodeling ideas. We thought it was a hobbyist site for makers to share stuff. And it is that. AND if one day your child searches for a Halloween costume based on slightly edgy but a movie we watched together “nightmare before christmas” search string a number of neat costumes come up accompanied by a number of edgier costumes including some that suggest self harm. Try this. Can’t. Make. it. up. Click on ONE of those and it opens up a new page of more and more terrible stuff on suicide, drug use, depression. And that is now top of the queue every single time you log in and no matter how many times after you search for rainbows, unicorns and abundance, the search recommendations will always have something there to draw one back into terrible content. You will even get emails reminding you to see new “pins on depression. “ As a fully formed adult, this can be hard to deal with. As a teen during a pandemic - it’s literally like handing them a loaded gun without instructions. We thought we had a handle on internet and social media content with screen time limits, content limits, search limits and communicating with our kids. We let Pinterest right in the door and it nearly cost us everything we hold dear- not hyperbole. Be as cautious with this app or even more so then anything on the internet or any other social media application.

Don't do it. I didn't realize they would push adult laden and sexually graphic content and themes to my young 12-13 y/o. Kids are naturally curious at this age, it is an inevitability and some marketers and predators posing as mainstream marketers will push content or link their content to seemingly innocuous tween, teen, or child focused, to peak interest, even when they shouldn't do so, given the profile set up with your child's userid and age. Pinterest platform is perfect for and designed for adults... I love the Pinterest concept used for pinning inspiring content, finding great ideas, and recipes. The algorithms will curate interesting ideas that peak my interest based on search and selection patterns. However, the same approach will be used against children and young teens for products, fashion, including sexually graphic and inappropriate content, which tends to creep in, quickly. If your child selects or lingers on an image or material that creeps in or is tied to questionable content, the algorithms are deliberately designed to curate and push more inappropriate content to your young children or teens more frequently...even if they are under 18 y/o. Some material is clearly meant for young adults (18 y/o) and mature adults. There is no setting that allows you to filter out inappropriate content or to select for age appropriate content. They have access to everything you would as an adult. Adult laden themes, soft porn, graphic sexual content themes, adult humor, along with fashion trends, DIY crafts, life hacks, work-outs, books, etc. Everything you see or select for, they can see with full, unfiltered access. You won't know what they see until you pull up their profile or see the boards they are creating, which is also open to public view, not necessarily locked down for privacy. All of these variables together, unfortunately, make Pinterest an unsafe digital environment and experience, for young minds that are easily influenced. Its important for parents to understand how marketing algorithms are designed these days to fully appreciate how powerful algorithms are in pushing inappropriate content, including adult humor, political charged themes, graphic sexual content, et al questionable material, that is pushed to your children due to your or their initial exposure and/or clicking pattern on links. Best to avoid allowing kids on the platform at all, unless you are able to have direct supervision throughout their engagement. It is what it is, until the platform developers are willing to design one that is truly age appropriate and allows parents to control what kids have access to. Everything in its time and one's maturity.

My 12 yo daughter recently asked for Pinterest. My daughter is very interested in art and fashion, and wanted to use it as inspiration for projects. There are some mixed reviews on here, saying that there are sexually explicit content and while that is true, it is very hard to find, and you must search for it specifically otherwise you will not find it. Responsibility is key in this case, and if used responsibly Pinterest is a fun useful app.

Pinterest used to be what we used for ideas and only ideas. It's being used as a social media tool by our young teens now. The fact that profiles can't be set to "private" for our children/ teens means that complete strangers can follow their boards. That, and they're sending private messages and talking about sexuality behind parents' backs. If you do allow your child to use it, check often for hidden 2nd profiles and closely look at who follows them. You'd be surprised. It's definitely not what it used to be.

Personally, I love Pinterest and have used it for creative inspiration for years. Recently my 11 & 12 year old kids started spending A LOT of time on it though, which made me take a second look at exactly what they were doing on it. My 11 yr old has been using it to watch videos, some appropriate and other's not so much - no big deal. However, my 12 yr old started direct messaging with other kids in Gatcha Pin groups. The cardinal rule of giving away personal information, including exchanging phone numbers was broken and that activity has me concerned enough that I have deleted the app from both their phones. Who would think that predators could/would find our kids and communicate with them through an app like this, but they could.

Pinterest is safe and useful for kids 11 and up, in general. Of course if you have an issue and are worried about your own kids responsibility, that is another issue and it is up to you. But Pinterest is useful and fun for kids who are interest in arts and crafts, baking, design, and more! Pinterest of course has some inappropriate content, but you can only find it if you look for it, so if you want to have a discussion with your kid about it first that is fine. But overall Pinterest is a fun, useful site that is great for responsible kids 11 and up.

This site has many of funny pins but a lot of them are for adults. On Pinterest you can choose stuff your interested in get ideas but there is also a lot of bad things on pins like cussing and drinking,drugs,violence,blood,and porn gay sex. You should probably not let a young child have there own private account because horrible things pop up.

PINTEREST IS AWFUL

Pinterest is a great social media app a lot more appropriate compared to Facebook or YouTube and if you trust your child I would recommend. Based on previous experiences you will only find in appropriate content if searched for. As most social media platforms Pinterest tracks your IP and as well if your child has searched up inappropriate content or has inappropriate apps content in the app will be like that. At the age of 13 kids will have a tension to search for bad content so just watch out. My child is 13 and I will let her on the app at 14

Love this app, I think it's a great social media site to start your child out on.