UPDATE: Reddit has now removed “all subreddits that focus on sexualization of children.” And it only took them six years to realize that maybe catering to peodophiles was not such a good idea.
Yet another Reddit pedophilia explosion, this time centering around r/preteen_girls, a subreddit which is evidently filled with sexualized photos of preteen girls. (You thought the banning of Reddit’s Jailbait subreddit solved the problem? Nope; Reddit still hosts numerous subreddits catering to pedos.)
The subreddit came under some criticism elsewhere on Reddit a couple of days ago, and countless creeps leapt to its defense.
I don’t have the stomach to dig into this one, but ShitRedditSays is on the case.
Here are screenshots of a bunch of comments defending the subreddit, the pictures, and creepiness itself, collected by SRS regular littletiger. They’re all pretty repugnant, but this one really takes repugnance to a new level:
Here’s an SRS thread discussing the screenshots and the controversy in general.
Many of the defenders of r/preteen_girls have responded to the criticism by angrily asserting that the pictures there aren’t nude or pornographic. Which is not, actually, true, as this SRS thread makes clear. Indeed, here is a screenshot of the incredibly creepy discussion that ensued in r/preteen_girls when one nude picture got posted. (Note: this screenshot shows a small censored thumbnail of the nude picture in question.)
Naturally, all this led to yet more highly upvoted pedophilia jokes, something Reddit already has quite a surplus of.
(Thanks to SRS once again for pointing me to this comment.)
Here’s a discussion of the original thread (in r/wtf) in which some questioned the propriety of Reddit hosting a forum devoted to suggestive and possibly pornographic pictures of children; and another SRS thread highlighting one of the creepier r/preteen_girls defenders. (And if you want more, here’s that guy’s highly disturbing comment history.)
For more on Reddit’s pedophilia problem, see my previous posts on the r/jailbait controversies.
Reddit used to be owned by Conde Nast. It is still owned by Conde Nast’s parent company Advance Publications. Why would this publishing giant, which owns dozens of media properties ranging from the New Yorker and Vanity Fair to the uber-wholesome Sunday newspaper supplement Parade, want to associate itself with a site that continue to host forums devoted to sexualized photos of underage girls?
NOTE: None of the links in this post go to r/preteengirls itself; they are all to discussions of it elsewhere. None of them link to any of the pictures in question, though one, as I noted, contains a censored thumbnail image of one picture posted there.
Even a comment that doesn’t require a response still serves as troll food, though. Best to ignore this specific person completely, I think.
Cassandra, I’m not sure there’s enough room in the brain, wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable. XD
I read a news article in my local paper where a Deputy District Attorney prosecuting a child porn case made a point to refer to it as “child sexual abuse imagery” instead of calling it “child porn”.
That really stuck with me and I try to make a point to use that (more accurate) terminology.
Why don’t you just report it? I mean all this “exposure” or whatever, these guys don’t care, they’ve got their own pseudonyms.
I’d like to take it to the next level. I really hope someone sues the company and gets them to ban pedophile subreddits.
Cassandra, you don’t have to be a big jerk over it. I’m not forcing anyone to engage me, although I think I was in pretty good faith.
BoggiDWurms, I think it’s a matter of time. Their “stated” purpose is technically not illegal, but obviously in practice there’s quite a bit of really skeezy shit going on. Reddit deleting r/jailbait was a big deal because they’re so into open communication and all that, but now that they’ve done it once, if people make a stink, it’ll go quicker.
Dammit, why can’t you let them be assholes!?
I do love that missing comma.
So, if I’ve got this right…
* Don’t blame the men who are consuming the pretty-much-child-porn, they’re just looking at what’s already happened.
* Don’t blame the children in the pretty-much-child-porn, they’re minors and (according to the recent article thingy submitted by AVFM to the UN) shouldn’t be culpable
* Don’t blame the distributors, because that’s reddit’s subthreads. And it’s blaming the consumers and censorship and oppression and so on to shut them down.
Sooo… everyone agrees child porn is wrong, yet nobody should be culpable. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.
I just don’t understand. If I go 5 fucking dollars over with my checking account the damn bank knows about it in a micro second but child porn, no big dealio. This world is seriously fucked up.
why do these people keep insisting the kids aren’t being hurt by it?
first off, they were hurt by having the pics taken
their anonmynity is compromised, people can now find their pics online –
-linked to porn, and i have lived this – there are people who WILL think that 9 year old [or whatever] WANTED to do it…
and then the chance of the kids finding those pics later, and KNOWING assholes have wanked to them, yet another violation only… a billion fold. “is he my boyfriend because he likes me, or because he thinks i’ve done porn?” “is she asking me out because she likes me, or because she saw the porn?” ad infintum
and… considering the reaction *I* had to finding out certain people had PICTURES of some of the rape i endured at 12…
yeah. it’s gonna hurt those kids. a LOT. **RAGE**
GAHHHHH
maybe time for an organized petition of Conde Nast, or rather the parent company.
I guess the sicko though process goes something like:
“We’re not pedophiles! We don’t look at child pornography, we only look at pictures of clothed kids! So what if they’re in suggestive positions? That six year old was probably posing for her boyfriend! We only imagine the kids are naked while we jerk off looking at those pictures! THAT’S NOT THE SAME THING AT ALL, OKAY!!1!ONE!!1”
Ugh. Someone hose me off, cause I sure feel like I need a shower after typing that.
Is it bad that I’m not even surprised this happens? Sure, reddit took down the previous subreddit, but it was mainly out of the controversy. As long as they don’t have rules against these things, it will continue.
“Being creepy isn’t illegal.”
Oh if only I ruled the world….
I just want to say thank you for covering this. There can not possibly be enough exposure about this issue. To anyone who reads this comment: PLEASE contact news outlets, report this to the FBI! Tell everyone you know!
Proof that the powers that be are complicit: http://youtu.be/OXZYvrue1BE
People to contact:
TIPS.FBI.GOV
Fox News (newsroom email): [email protected]
MSNBC Email: [email protected]
The New York times: [email protected]
EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
Reddit is promoting child pornography! Can you live with yourself if you ignore this?
There are no words.
Oh geez, denelian, that’s terrible. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Why should we blame them and hold them culpable?
Ew. Ick ick eww!
Um yeah, so long as it’s not your kid they’re “discussing”over there, just let ’em be assholes, amiright?
And my daughter wonders why I don’t post pictures of her anywhere over the net. My family wants photos, they can bloody well come to my place and get them.
There are pictures of dead kids on the reddit sites? Between these two things…I think part of my soul just died.
denelian: I offer you a billion hugs. The idea that someone had to live trough such fuck up things tears my heart apart. I wish you well.
pillowhell:
I’ve been wondering about that part, but I don’t dare to check myself. So I hold on to the hope that they mean threads like the one about Powell: technically, Manboobz could be said to host pictures of two dead children. But context matters.
(Yes, I’m a very optimistic person. God or spaghetti Monster, please prove me right)
There are pictures of actual children’s corpses, Kyrie. I went searching out these subreddits because I was not willing to credit the existence of such a thing on another’s word. I wish I was more trusting, in a way? There are entire threads featuring the occasional normal photo of a child that happens to have died, yes, but mostly crime scene photos, car accident photos, most of which I hope were staged but many of which must be real. Staged or real, these people are competing over who can bring on the most gruesome photos, reposting them, and commenting on them.
I forget the fetal anomalies. Lots of fetal anomalies. People on reddit sure do love them those some fetal anomalies.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3466025
I lost a bit of my faith in humanity n general and people on internet in particular.
Thanks Padkayne for letting me know anyway…
@Falconer:
“Why should we blame them and hold them culpable?”
My main point was highlighting how they may say child porn is wrong, but they then try to argue that nobody involved in the process (production, distribution, consumption) should be liable for anything.
In my opinion, any distributor, even the kids themselves if they were the ones to post the pics, should be culpable to some degree… But that’s kinda beside the point.
http://www.change.org/petitions/rpreteen-girls-remove-rpreteen-girls-from-redditcom#
Petition in Change.org to bring it down. Not sure if it will be useful, but it’s something…