"Pinch the ends and it will get bushier"???

So, if you've followed along, you know that I have a nice golden Pothos. It sits and the corner and looks pretty, which is why we have it. However, being that it is under the poisonous plants act of 1921, we don't want the trailing vines to get low enough for our young girls to grab and possibly, if the idea occurs to them, eat. I have had personal experience (many, many moons ago) of eating green things (mom always did say "eat your greens") and then adults saying, "why did you eat that?" and getting rushed hither and thither.
However I am straying from the point at issue. To keep the pothos vines from going down too low I have heard and read that you should "pinch the ends and it will grow out and bushier rather than long." The question is, How hard? Until it squeals? or just until it knows that you care? I have pinched my wife many times and she looks pretty, but all the pinching I have done does nothing to the golden pothos. Or am I supposed to pinch it until the end comes right off, but then why pinch? why not prune?
So hopefully there are some of you out there who are not as "pinchably challenged" as I am and can throw some light on this dark issue.