Making Sense of Reddit’s Ban on Sex Toy Ads (XBIZ)

Read the full article by Julia Margo at XBIZ.com

It’s 2019 — do we really still think masturbation is somehow dirty or evil? Reddit appears to, as it announced last month that it will no longer accept advertisements for sex toys on its platform.

I can’t say I’m surprised by the changes, and I don’t expect any XBIZ reader to be either. Let’s face it:  sex industry companies are already ostracized from the vast majority of mainstream outlets and services. We can’t advertise on Amazon — even though millions of sex toys each year are sold through the site, promoting them on the platform is not allowed. We can’t place ads on Twitter or Facebook either, and now even our unpaid activity is being severely restricted via shadowbans, de-ranking and other tactics.

The reasoning is usually about protecting children, and it’s hard to argue with that in principle — none of us in the sex industry want kids to be exposed to adult content. But there are ways to do that (age-targeting, for instance) that don’t involve banning promotion of adult products. Most places manage to run ads for gambling, alcohol and 18-and-over films and video games without too much trouble.

Besides, the idea that Reddit should make its adverts “child-friendly” at all is bizarre. Reddit currently hosts so much porn that it’s had to be given a special exemption from the U.K. porn block that’s coming into force on July 15, and there are no plans to change that just yet. And though sex toy and porn ads are now banned, they can and will still be discussed in relevant subreddits. Reddit will still host chat and images of our products and services, it just won’t allow us to advertise — on NSFW subreddits or anywhere else on the site.