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Reddit makes NSFW links disappear

Recovered porn addicts: Social news site Reddit is finally a safe place.

You just have to be under 18 — or at least pretend you’re under 18.

Reddit admin Brian Simpson announced the change late Monday in the site’s official change log.

Redditors now have the ability to block all posts tagged “not safe for work” (NSFW) from appearing in their stream. To do so, they just need to check the “I am under 18” box in the site’s user settings page.

Previously, thumbnails of NSFW links only appeared if a redditor subscribed to an NSFW subreddit.  But links to the content itself could still appear — a temptation that at least one porn addict found too much to bear.

The change should also ostensibly benefit parents worried about teenage redditors viewing adult content.

But considering that security only goes so far as a check box, we think it’s safe to say the real target is recovering porn addicts (or people who just really don’t want to see adult content in their Reddit stream).

In fact, the change came just a few weeks after one redditor was viciously mocked for suggesting a similar idea in the site’s suggestion box subreddit, r/ideasfortheadmins.