How to Safeguard Your Photos from Pinterest Pins

By Mustaza Mustafa. in Social Media. Updated on June 28, 2024.

The popularity of Pinterest has soared, with users pinning images from all over the web. If your site relies heavily on images, this pinning trend might concern you. Pinterest has been dubbed the ‘haven for copyright violations’ for a reason. If you don’t want your valuable copyrighted photos pinned by users, it may seem like there’s nothing you can do to stop them. Or is there?

Pinterest has introduced a feature that lets you disable pinning on your site using a meta tag. It’s straightforward to implement, and there’s also a plugin for WordPress blogs. This article will guide you on how to use these methods to protect your photos from being pinned.

Stopping Pinterest Pins on HTML Sites

If your work is on a standard HTML website, you can prevent Pinterest pins by adding a meta tag to the header section of your HTML page. Insert it within the <head> section, before the closing </head> tag. The meta tag you need is:

<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" />

Your header file should look something like this once the meta tag is included:

With this meta tag, Pinterest users who try to pin your photos will see this error message:

Stopping Pinterest Pins on WordPress Sites

If you use WordPress, you can install a plugin to block pinning activities. One such plugin is Pinterest Block. To use this plugin, go to your WordPress admin page, click ‘Add New’ under the ‘Plugin’ section, and search for ‘Pinterest Block’.

Once you find the plugin, install and activate it. In the options panel, you’ll find several settings to configure how Pinterest Block works on your site.

Select the options that suit your site, then click “Save Settings.” That’s it! Pinterest users will no longer be able to pin photos from the pages you’ve blocked. The error shown will be the same as for HTML websites.

Conclusion

With just a simple step, you can protect your photos from copyright violations. Many users are unaware of copyright issues, but with this meta tag, you can continue creating and sharing great photos on your site without worry.