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In a necessary end to the /r/jailbait controversy, Reddit admins have finally banned the posting suggestive or sexual images of children. The move came after outrage over the subreddit /r/preteen_girls had reached a fever pitch Sunday afternoon. Here’s a list of the banned subreddits; more will no doubt be added as trolls try to test Reddit’s resolve over the next few days. (r/blog)
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“We … do not make this policy change lightly,” the blog post read, a poor choice of words that could have used greater clarification. Twitter users have already picked up the awkward phrasing and run with it, thanks to an article from CNET. Protecting children is an easy and necessary decision, the staff should have emphasized, with no prevarication. (r/blog)
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Reddit’s big move came just as members of the Something Awful forums—working with their Reddit outpost at /r/ShitRedditSays—were planning to launch a so-called “Reddit bomb.” Essentially, this would have been a smear campaign, labeling Reddit as a den for pedophiles, and all redditors as complicit in the crime. After the policy change, /r/ShitRedditSays declared victory. (/r/ShitRedditSays)
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For a thoughtful discussion of the “slippery slope” excuse and how it relates to the ban, check here. (/r/InsightfulQuestions).
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I’ve argued frequently that if opponents of these sections want to prove they’re not just out to get Reddit—that if their first priority is protecting children and stopping the proliferation of these images, which I believe it is—they should now take on Imgur. That site actually hosts the photographs and presumably bears criminal liability for doing so. So while /r/ShitRedditSays and Something Awful celebrate, all of the pictures are right where they always were. Imgur has yet to take any of its jailbait sections down. Where is the outrage?