Pinterest, Instagram and the dangers of these sites

Thank you for that Callistemon, I knew Instagram had been criticised on other occasions but hadn’t realised about Pinterest. I wonder what else they’re hiding?

Bump

I'm sorry it was me who suggested Pinterest. I have no idea other stuff went on on there at all. I look at arts and crafts stuff on there

I use it too JaneJudge but I think Callistemon is drawing attention to the dangers it potentially poses to vulnerable people.

Blossoming

I use it too JaneJudge but I think Callistemon is drawing attention to the dangers it potentially poses to vulnerable people.

Yes, I was Blossoming

I was also concerned that a seemingly innocuous sites such as Pinterest and Instagram have a dark side. The senior executive of Pinterest seemed quite relaxed about the fact that dangerous material can easily be accessed by vulnerable people on their sites, including teenagers.

Such companies are worth $billions - surely it is not beyond their capabilities to track and instantly delete disturbing material encouraging death, suicide before it can be accessed by vulnerable users?
They are surely failing in the duty of care.

If a grandchild said to you "I'm just on Pinterest looking for ideas for redecorating my bedroom" would you worry?
No, but that child would only have to type a word in the search box for algorithms to bring up this dreadful material.

I have no problem with Instagram etc.
Isn't the whole of the Internet built on algorithms?

th irls at work have been talking about it all today !

I think platforms do share some responsibility for their content but I am not sure how they can always reasonably police it.

The same way we can't always know what goes on behind closed doors.

Larger platforms have algorithms that look for keywords and things but there isn't a human being available to screen everything posted. Reporting it means finding it.

I don't know how it can ever be stopped. It breaks my heart some of the things that are available online.

I think the best place to start is education on Internet safety and building up children's resilience and mental health

Larger platforms have algorithms that look for keywords and things but there isn't a human being available to screen everything posted. Reporting it means finding it
They're earning billions, is it not possible to police it?

Police it how, though? Ban any mention of death? It’s not feasible - even when sites name the use of a certain word, the users find a way around it.

Retired software developer here. It’s difficult ad it’s complicated and I’m not going into detail here but very few things are impossible given an enormous amount of money and enough resources,

The fact that it’s difficult doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

Thanks Blossoming
It's not as if they are running on a shoestring.

Insiders trading at Pinterest Inc
Over the last 3 years, insiders at Pinterest Inc have traded over $10,104,093,332 worth of Pinterest Inc stock and bought 262,551 units worth $6,082,321 . The most active insiders traders include Marc L Andreessen, Harbor Master Investors (Ca..., and Benjamin Silbermann. On average, Pinterest Inc executives and independent directors trade stock every 6 days with the average trade being worth of $2,221,543. The most recent stock trade was executed by Todd R Morgenfeld on 28 September 2022, trading 55,241 units of PINS stock currently worth $1,303,688

As the Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Pinterest Inc, the total compensation of Benjamin Silbermann at Pinterest Inc is $46,222,100

JaneJudge

I'm sorry it was me who suggested Pinterest. I have no idea other stuff went on on there at all. I look at arts and crafts stuff on there

Same here. I mentioned Pinterest on the ‘wasting time’ thread.

I had no idea what a danger it could pose. It’s shocking.

It's not just Pinterest, other sites too have their dark and evil side. Facebook and Instagram were named too.
For the most part they will be enjoyable and interesting but we need to be aware of the danger these seemingly innocent sites can pose to the young and the vulnerable.

They need to be made more accountable.

We are all adults.

Pinterest is great. I use it a lot and have never had anything disturbing pop up. Instagram has a lot of great stuff on it as well and also I have never had anything negative pop up. The algorythms tend to show you things you have shown an interest in already.

I don't think it's helpful to bash people for using these sites for crafts, useful ideas etc- and also many small businesses use them too. There is a dark side to Facebook too but people still use it. The whole internet has the propensity for bad, if you use it that way, too. Most social media works on algorythms, which mean that what you look at, you'll likely be shown more of the same. If you are a crafter or a supporter of a small business you'll probably see lovely things but if you are someone who has looked from curiosity at suicide or self harm, you may be shown more because of the way the algorythms work.

So, it can be very good or very bad, but all computers (and phones) do what they are told and I can honestly say that in all my years using every type of social media going, I have NEVER had anything like this happen.

I do feel sorry for today's parents having to monitor their kds online lives. Truly devastated for Molly's parents! It must be near on impossible to monitor everything for teenagers, but not a reason for those of us who are secure adults to have to avoid sites where we enjoy seeing each other's photos and creations. I am not going to stop using it because I use it for good. But I do think parents will have to make hard decisions about their kids if things don't change.

We are all adults
We are yes.

But I do think parents will have to make hard decisions about their kids if things don't change

No, the sites should change and yes it is possible.
I hope Molly's tragic death and the report of the coroner will bring about the changes needed.

The head of health and wellbeing at Meta claimed the sites were safe but that was not true.

I don't think it's helpful to bash people for using these sites for crafts, useful ideas etc- and also many small businesses use them too

I have not bashed people for using these sites
I said be aware.
I said those who own and run the sites need to take more responsibility for the content and the wellbeing of users who may not be adults.

If a grandchild said to you "I'm just on Pinterest looking for ideas for redecorating my bedroom" would you worry?

Previously no but now we can be more aware that there is an evil side lurking too.

I hope so. There are probably unscrupulous people or thoughtless people who post things they should not.

We are probably more likely to see things that our friends post, so young people may be very vulnerable.

I think they are safe for us older ones, that's what I meant. But I don't envy any parents trying to keep their teenagers safe online these days.

Yes I hope changes come. My point was not to bash older people from using it, if they have friends there and are innocently enjoying what they see.

If you search #selfharm on Instagram you get a message that says " posts with words that you're searching for often encourage behaviour that can cause harm and even lead to death. If you're going through something difficult we'd like to help" Then there are two options "get support" or "see results anyway".
I searched #death and there are no filters or offer of support...
Perhaps there's a way they could make it only viewable for over 18 or something?

It's so tragic it's appalling. I'm afraid inventions never have the ability to predict where they will lead. From the moment the smartphone entered our lives everything changed. Up until then a phone was a phone, all you could do was make calls and send text messages. Then suddenly we had little computers in our pockets. A tiny miracle that links everyone to the whole world. At that moment a law should have been passed to make them illegal to under 18s. Youngsters should never had access to them at all. Would you allow a child to walk alone in a rough part of the city, where all sort of strange people might approach them and make suggestions? Well with a smartphone the whole world can approach a child in the privacy of their bedroom. So no, they should never have been legal for under 18s.

I had mentioned Pinterest in the thread that Callistemin first mentioned, I certainly didn’t feel bashed, and I was glad to be informed of the problem.

?

That's why I started a separate thread because I thought it was important and didn't want to derail a craft thread.

I have looked at Pinterest for ideas too but rarely, just took it at face value mainly as a craft site.
Facebook I use sparingly and know Instagram is popular with younger people.

I don’t know how they could be policed without restricting adults too, and we don’t want to end up line North Korea.

When my children were small we put a Net Nanny on the family computer, but in the end we took it off because it blocked so many things that they couldn’t do primary school homework. Dick Van Dyke is always cited as a search that would be banned, and whereas that is probably apocryphal, ours would almost certainly have blocked it.

I know that it’s difficult for parents, but I don’t think that adults should be unable to use the Internet freely, so I do think that parents have to find a way to manage their children’s access. We put the computer in the hallway under the stairs, so that we could see what they were doing when we went past, which was regularly. Not so easy with smartphones, but maybe their use should be limited under the age of 16 or so. Or could there be tiered access based on passwords or something, a bit like Netflix accounts which only show suitable films when a child is watching. They’d get round it no doubt, but it would be better than nothing.

Doodledog I don’t know how they could be policed without restricting adults too, and we don’t want to end up line North Korea.
Just making them illegal for under 16s or 18s would at least have helped. Like alcohol, some will break the law but most won't. It's too late now of course.

We put the computer in the hallway under the stairs, so that we could see what they were doing when we went past, which was regularly. Not so easy with smartphones, but maybe their use should be limited under the age of 16 or so
Of course under 16s should not be allowed to take any devices to their bedrooms. But us saying that will not make it happen. Hundreds of millions of youngsters are peering at their phones in the small hours and accessing all manner of horrors. We may think parents should be responsible, but only laws and regulations will make them so.

My mother died recently and I’ve been trying to sort out her (very limited) internet presence. I’ve managed to close down her Facebook and Amazon accounts, but Instagram is proving very difficult. She only went on there to follow her granddaughter and great grandchildren in New Zealand, which to be honest was a bit of a waste of time since my daughter puts all the pictures on BackThen (a private site for families to share photographs.) Anyway, Instagram is difficult to close down. Anyone know how?