07 Dezember 2008

YouTube und NING sagen Nein zu Sex

"YouTube" hat angekündigt, sich von obszönem und sexuell anzüglichem Videomaterial auch in seinem mit Altersbeschränkung versehenen Bereich zu trennen.

Auch bei "Ning", einem Portal für soziale Netzwerke, ist das ab Januar zu erwarten, allerdings nicht wegen moralischer Bedenken, sondern weil der als Rotlichtbezirk ausgewiesene Bereich von "Ning" zu teuer geworden ist.
A quick Google search for “sex” returns a whopping 67 million pages. A search for “porn” turns up more than 18 million pages.

As popular and ubiquitous as sex is on the Internet, it would seem like a natural fit for Web-based businesses looking to attract page views and revenue.

But some big sites built on user-shared content have decided it’s smart business to limit sexually explicit material.

Ning, a platform that lets people create their own social networks, announced Monday that, beginning next year, it will discontinue support for the adult-themed communities housed within site’s aptly named Red Light District.

Gina Bianchini, chief executive and co-founder of Ning, said that adult networks make up less than 1 percent of the 630,000 social networks built using the platform.

“This is not a philosophical decision but a practical one,” said Ms. Bianchini. The site’s Red Light District generates a disproportionate amount of time and manpower to sort out claims of copyright violations related to the unauthorized use of images.

In addition, Ms. Bianchini said, the adult networks don’t generate enough advertising revenue to cover their costs. Moreover, she doesn’t want to “run afoul” of advertisers who might not want their content running alongside explicit material.

YouTube, owned by Google, is also taking a stronger stance against racier content on its popular video-sharing site.

In a blog entry posted on Monday, YouTube outlined a series of new measures to help regulate mature materials.

YouTube has long had a policy of pulling down videos that its screeners decide contain illicit and other prohibited content.

But now YouTube will begin restricting videos categorized as containing profanity or sexually suggestive materials to viewers who say they are at least 18. And YouTube will tweak its search algorithm to demote explicit videos from top-ranked lists and dissuade from using sexy images to promote videos on unrelated topics.

Scott Rubin, a YouTube spokesman, said the policy change wasn’t triggered by a specific incident and has nothing to do with YouTube’s advertising efforts. “There’s no smoking gun anywhere,” said Mr. Rubin. “We are always looking for ways to improve the YouTube experience.”

Response to the new restrictions has been mixed. YouTube community members flooded the comment section of Monday’s blog post with more than 1,300 responses, most of which expressed outrage and disappointment at the policy changes.

Without citing specific examples, Ms. Bianchini said the reaction to Ning’s change has been positive.

The moves by YouTube and Ning follow Craigslist’s decision last month to clean up its “erotic services” sector by charging advertisers a fee to place an ad and requiring them to provide valid identification.

Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist, said the new measures have decreased the volume of ads in the notoriously unruly section by 90 percent. “Ads being posted now are much improved with regard to compliance with our terms of use,” said Mr. Buckmaster.
Quelle: TheNewYorkTimes

Homepage


Der Weg zu Ihrem Anwalt

Keine Kommentare:

 

kostenloser Counter

XING frisch gebloggt Newstin Piratenblogger Blog Top Liste - by TopBlogs.de