Google-owned blogging platform Blogger will no longer allow its users to post sexually explicit content, the company confirmed today. In a statement sent via email to selected Blogger users, Google said it would no longer allow blogs to feature "graphic nude images or video" from March 23rd. Any blogs that continued to show explicit images would be made private after that date — while graphic images and videos would remain, Google says they would only be visible to the blog owner, admins, and other people with whom the owner shared it.

Google will still allow "artistic, educational, documentary, and scientific" nudity

In an updated entry in its support database, Google says it will still allow nudity on Blogger blogs if the images or video offer "substantial public benefit," for example in "artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts." If explicit content doesn't conform to that definition, then the company suggests that users remove the offending media entirely, or mark it as private. Blogger's previous policy allowed explicit images and videos if the blog was marked as "adult," stating that "censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression."

Blogger follows the example of social network Vine, which last March prohibited the sharing of pornographic clips, but the move could cause Google's platform to lose users to its major rivals. Tumblr, in particular, has kept studiously quiet about sexually explicit content. The popular blogging platform, bought by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, has become something of a haven for the sharing of pornographic clips and video, but its new owners have yet to make pronouncements on the subject after Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer promised "not to screw up" the service at the time of purchase.