The massively popular website Reddit has revealed plans to ban revenge porn.
Reddit, which describes itself as the "front page of the internet", vowed to clamp down on the distribution of any explicit images published without the subject's consent.
Until recently, the website has operated a hands-off policy on sex images.
It enforces a blanket ban on child pornography, but has previously allowed pages like the now-banned Creepshots to publish sexual snaps of a person without their consent.
In a statement, Reddit said: "No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on Reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on Reddit.
"We also recognise that violent personalised images are a form of harassment that we do not tolerate and we will remove them when notified."
The new measures are not intended to clamp down on amateur pornography.
Anyone wishing to post naughty images of themselves still has permission to do so.
But Reddit does not want a repeat of last year's celeb sex leak, when hackers got their hands on images of naked stars including Jennifer Lawrence and splashed them across the internet.
Holly Jacobs, who runs an anti-revenge porn called the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative said: "It's showing an important shift they're making to actually work hard to protect victims."
The new rules will come into force on March 10.
A Revenge Porn Helpline was unveiled by British ministers earlier this month to help tackle the growing problem
It is designed to help victims remove images from the internet.
Revenge porn is on the verge of becoming a new criminal offence after gaining Royal Assent.
Reddit, which describes itself as the "front page of the internet", vowed to clamp down on the distribution of any explicit images published without the subject's consent.
Until recently, the website has operated a hands-off policy on sex images.
It enforces a blanket ban on child pornography, but has previously allowed pages like the now-banned Creepshots to publish sexual snaps of a person without their consent.
In a statement, Reddit said: "No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on Reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on Reddit.
"We also recognise that violent personalised images are a form of harassment that we do not tolerate and we will remove them when notified."
The new measures are not intended to clamp down on amateur pornography.
Anyone wishing to post naughty images of themselves still has permission to do so.
But Reddit does not want a repeat of last year's celeb sex leak, when hackers got their hands on images of naked stars including Jennifer Lawrence and splashed them across the internet.
Holly Jacobs, who runs an anti-revenge porn called the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative said: "It's showing an important shift they're making to actually work hard to protect victims."
The new rules will come into force on March 10.
A Revenge Porn Helpline was unveiled by British ministers earlier this month to help tackle the growing problem
It is designed to help victims remove images from the internet.
Revenge porn is on the verge of becoming a new criminal offence after gaining Royal Assent.
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