Google Goes After Explicit Material on Blogger

Google is giving users of its blogging software a month to clean up sexually explicit content or lose most of their audience. The ban in Blogger on “sexually explicit or graphic nude images” -- basically adult content such as porn -- takes effect March 23, at which point any blogs in violation will be converted to a private status, Google said. That means the blog will be visible only by the administrator and any person given permission to view it. Google said it will still allow nudity on Blogger -- as long as the material has artistic, educational or scientific benefits. Blog owners can proactively set a blog to private status, or shut down the blog and take the content somewhere else. New blogs created after March 23 could be taken down if Google finds the content in violation of its policies. Those policies say Blogger bases itself on freedom of expression, but within boundaries that are legal or intended to “enhance the service as a whole.”