Blackburn and Blumenthal demand answers from Pinterest over ‘sex-themed’ image boards of minors
Rachel Schilke
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Lawmakers are ramping up their efforts to hold social media companies accountable in keeping children safe online after a report emerged that one company’s platform was being used to create image boards that exploited young girls.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to Pinterest CEO Bill Ready on Tuesday demanding answers from the company after an NBC News investigation revealed methods for people to create sex-themed image boards of young girls.
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Pinterest announced days after the investigation that they had increased their amount of human content moderators and developed new features that allow users to report content and accounts for several types of violations, including “nudity, pornography, or sexualized content,” as well as including “intentional misuse involving minors.”
However, Blumenthal and Blackburn demanded to know why those tools were not in place before the outlet’s investigation. In their letter, the senators pointed to previous commitments Pinterest expressed toward youth mental health and privacy, both in content reporting mechanisms and age assurance practices and during meetings with congressional staff.
“This report is particularly disappointing given that Pinterest has branded itself the ‘last positive corner of the internet,'” the senators wrote. “Unfortunately, according to the issues found in the report, Pinterest has fallen short of these aspirations.”
Violations that users can now report include “nudity, pornography or sexualized content,” as well as including “intentional misuse involving minors.” Boards previously could not be flagged for anything, and individual accounts could only be reported for “spam” and “inappropriate cover image.”
Individual photos and videos spanning from dozens to thousands of young girls showing them in bathing suits, leotards, and other similar attire had been grouped together into public boards titled “Sexy little girls,” “delicious,” “hot,” and “young girls,” NBC News discovered.
“It should not have taken national media coverage of such graphic misuse targeting young children to prompt action,” the senators added.
Blackburn and Blumenthal asked Pinterest how they managed any potential contact between minors and adults and to what extent adults can follow or message children.
“Pinterest apparently took little to no action to prevent adult men from posting sexually suggestive comments on minors’ photos and messaging them directly,” the senators wrote.
The senators are co-sponsors of the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which would force platforms to turn on the highest privacy features for underage users by default. It failed to gain enough traction to pass the Senate after being proposed in the final months of the last session of Congress.
“As the authors of the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, we believe that the social media platforms have profound moral and social obligations to protect children and teens from mental health risks, sexual exploitation, and other harms,” the senators wrote.
They sent a list of eight questions to Ready and requested responses by April 4. The senators asked whether Pinterest obtained an audit or conducted an internal review about the removal of child sex abuse material or sex trafficking of minors, as well as whether content moderators are in house or operating through a third party.
In December 2022, the FBI announced that at least 3,000 minors, primarily young boys, had been victims of sextortion over the past year. Law enforcement agencies had received over 7,000 reports related to the financial sextortion of minors, contributing to over a dozen suicides.
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The White House has expressed its support of stronger online safety measures for children in the past. During his State of the Union address, Biden said he would push for social media companies to protect the data of teenagers and ban targeted ads toward minors.
“Platforms and other interactive digital service providers should be required to prioritize the privacy and wellbeing of young people above profit and revenue in their product design, including safety by design standards and practices for online platforms, products, and services,” the White House said.