Pinterest May Provide Forum For People to View Online Porn Images

It’s like a community gathering online where people gather to view things they love, like craft images, decorating ideas and recipes. Like other social media forms, Pinterest is also becoming a gathering location for viewing pornographic images and may contribute to rising numbers of pornography addictions.

Pinterest boasts more than 11 million viewers, and recent articles are drawing attention to the "accidental" ways people are landing on sexual or illicit photos on the site. One Pinterest user, in an attempt to learn more about a potential new relationship who was following her on the site, discovered that the other user enjoys sexual pictures of women.

Even more, some viewers are finding that Pinterest users are using the site to collect and display favorite pornographic images. Pinterest also allows users the ability to be very specific about their pornographic interests.

As research uncovers more about the addictive nature of porn, including the ways viewing a pornographic image can cause changes at the brain level, Pinterest may be another online resource that could contribute to viewers’ compulsive, obsessive or addictive viewing of the materials.

Like other addictions, pornography addiction progresses over time until the viewer is no longer able to control urges and cravings for the material. Similar to addictions to drugs or alcohol, pornography addiction requires professional help to break, and can destroy careers, families, finances and lives.

For many people, pornography addiction remains a hidden activity until the consequences become sharply apparent. Sites like Pinterest may offer another "secret" outlet for people to view pornographic images and to accommodate obsessive cravings – thus keeping them farther away from uncovering the true causes and solutions for overcoming the powerful addiction.