What is Pinterest? And is it promoting Art or Porn?

Here’s another site you really should be aware of. Pinterest. What is Pinterest? Well, as the name would hopefully have you guessing, it’s a “Virtual Pinboard”. It’s a site where people go to “organize and share all the beautiful things [they] find on the web. People use pin-boards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes”.

How does Pinterest relate to Art? Well that’s an interesting question. It turns out that a lot of people using Pinterest aren’t actually planning weddings, decorating their homes or organizing their recipes. What they are doing is sharing photographs and images of near naked or fully naked men and women. Whilst this is not a new activity on the web, it would seem to be against the policy of the new site. Pinterest’s terms of service prohibit “any content that…is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive.” As with most regulatory or legislative rulings that attempt to control the dissemination of nude and offensive material, Pinterest’s terms are open to interpretation and therefore debate. And with the site recently reaching the broader online community, such a debate was inevitable.

It’s by no means a new debate. For centuries, people have been arguing over whether nudity can be art. Many a priceless Greek statue has suffered as a result. But does one side of the argument have a stronger position than the other in this new, connected world? Who knows. One thing is for certain. It has never been as easy to get access to nude imagery. Whether it’s art, pornography or something in between.

Is there art on Pinterest? Definitely. Is there porn on Pinterest? Definitely. Would everyone agree on which images fall into which category? Definitely not. But maybe in thinking about it, in looking at the images and the way the human body is portrayed, they may just see something interesting, engaging or moving. They must just see breasts and buttocks and nothing else. Again, who knows?

What is for certain, is that whether they call it art or pornography…people are definitely interested in looking.

What is Pinterest? Does it matter. It is popular and it is here to stay. Pinterst would seem to be doing all it can to limit the amount of pornography on the site. But with demand so high, it would seem that Pinterest is finding it hard to keep up. No pun intended.