It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... for Internet porn.
On Monday, the social-networking site Ning, which in the past has been porn-friendly, announced that it will discontinue hosting adult-oriented networks in its "Red Light District" as of January 1.
Ning says the decision was informed by the practical, not the philosophical. According to Wired.com, CEO and co-founder Gina Bianchini described the move as inevitable, taking into account the considerable problems adult content had brought upon the site, including copyright infringement, violations of Terms of Service, and mediocre ad revenue.
She went on to say that, "Our focus is on creating incredibly simple, beautiful software and rapidly adding new features for the benefit of all. We can't do that as efficiently as we need to and still support adult networks on Ning. It's that simple."
Also jumping on the porn-crackdown bandwagon is YouTube, which has begun to implement tighter restrictions on adult videos, according to a recent blog post titled "A YouTube for All of Us." The post outlined several new initiatives to help crack down on mature content, while continuing its policy of removing anything flagged and decidedly pornographic.
In their words, "While videos featuring pornographic images or sex acts are always removed from the site when they're flagged, we're tightening the standard for what is considered 'sexually suggestive.'"
Videos will now be algorithmically demoted on pages such as "Most Viewed" and will be age-restricted, so that anyone younger than 18 years old will be denied access.
