Reddit.com is a social website that allows its user to share and discuss content such as videos, photos, articles, websites, and so on.
Reddit is massively popular (http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/2-billion-beyond.html), especially with young people (http://en.reddit.com/r/misc/comments/nevz9/results_of_the_reddit_demographics_survey_in_pie/).
Reddit is split into subcommunities known as “subreddits,” meaning that while reddit exists as a website, it consists of the sum of its subcommunities. People can subscribe to each community and participate by sharing and commenting.
Unfortunately, the reddit community as a whole also harbors and caters to pedophiles, distributors of child pornography, rapists, peeping Toms, and sex offenders.
Last fall, Anderson Cooper aired a report exposing the child pornography hosted on the site, ultimately leading to the largest subreddit devoted to it being shut down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuMdQRRLoYg&feature=related http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbait
Dozens of subreddits took its place.
Reddit users, as well as people in the media, have criticized Reddit’s permissive attitude towards child exploitation. Unfortunately, while admins didn’t ban sexualized images of children on paper until last February (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/policy-shift-reddit-bans-child-pornography.html), the rule remains unenforced, indicating that they are more interested in shielding themselves from bad press than protecting innocent kids.
Fun fact: these two douchebags knowingly allowed scumbag violentacrez/Michael Brutsch to create subreddits like r/jailbait, r/n*ggerjailbait, r/rapingwomen, r/beatingwomen, etc. and fill them with child pornography and horrifyingly violent, racist, and misogynistic material. Brutsch brought Reddit a ton of traffic in its early days. Reddit eventually got bigger, but all the pedophiles and assorted other scumbags remained on the site. It was only after intense public pressure and a media campaign that Reddit agreed to take down r/jailbait and other child porn subreddits. Brutsch was also involved in moderating r/creepshots, which was also the subject of much controversy a few months ago.
Look at these smiling motherfuckers. Erik Martin and Alexis Ohanian got their start with the degradation and exploitation of children and women (and these things still exist on Reddit—the administrators refuse to remove anything unless forced). Yet media outlets continue to write laudatory pieces about them and their terrible website. Fuck the whole lot of them.
