Reddit clamp down on child pornography

Some good news this morning as Reddit have decided to ban the posting of sexually suggestive and exploitative images of children. It may seem like a logical course of action, but Reddit have been dealing with child pornography on a ‘case by case' basis for years now.

This means that even images in a ‘legal gray area' will be removed immediately as administrators felt the previous policy was ‘unsustainable'.

They issued a statement which read “We have changed our policy because interpreting the vague and debated legal guidelines on a case by case basis has become a massive distraction and risks reddit being pulled in to legal quagmire. A necessary change in policy.”

Reddit came under attack over a subreddit called r/preteen_girls.

One user said “My guess is it's similar to /r/jailbait, a mix of photos from creeps lurking around on Facebook, from the seedier corners of the Internet, and a few tamer photos that could be seen in /r/pics. It might not be illegal, but it sure as hell is disturbing, and might break the ‘Don't post personal info' rule.”

This isn't the first problem for the Reddit administrators, as they shut down a section called ‘Jailbait' which featured explicit images of a 14 year old girl. Disturbingly it had over 20,000 subscribers. The administrators have now said that child pornography is ‘toxic' to internet communities.

They added “We understand that this might make some of you worried about the slippery slope from banning one specific type of content to banning other types of content. We're concerned about that too, and do not make this policy change lightly or without careful deliberation. We will tirelessly defend the right to freely share information on reddit in any way we can, even if it is offensive or discusses something that may be illegal.”

Kitguru says: It may have taken some time to sort out, but at least Reddit are moving in the right direction now.

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