Reddit Outlaws Racy Pictures of Children

Before yesterday, link aggregator Reddit had no official ban on users posting "suggestive or sexual content featuring minors," but that changed with a posting from administrators last night. Reddit explained that it's now banning such content, despite the concern that the ban will prove to be a "slippery slope" for the site, which New York's Daily Intel blog notes has defined itself with its extremely hands-off approach and fervent support of free speech. "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," the posting notes, but child pornography "is a toxic and unique case." The site noted that in the case of child porn, it previously abided by "strict legal guidelines" provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Daily Intel notes that Reddit appears to have folded after taking heat from forum members on the website Something Awful. After a user posted about Reddit's policy (or, at the time, lack thereof) on sexualized images of children, other users joined in and ultimately engaged in a "Redditbomb" to force the issue. There's also the fact that Anderson Cooper aired a negative report on the issue in September of last year, during which a Reddit co-founder defended the questionable content by pointing out that as a collection of links, Reddit doesn't actually host the material. Even so, the issue had obviously become "a liability," Daily Intel notes. Click for more on the issue. (More Reddit stories.)