Harassment and bullying is an unfortunate facet of open forums on the Web. Reddit in particular is no stranger to this, but the company is today announcing measures to fight back against attacks on individuals.

Whereas previously Reddit relied primarily on community mods to curb harassment, the company says it will now officially prohibit it as a whole – with prevention being the ultimate goal. Reddit defines harassment as:

Systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person (1) conclude that reddit is not a safe platform to express their ideas or participate in the conversation, or (2) fear for their safety or the safety of those around them.

Users can report harassment at [email protected] or by sending a message through its internal modmail system at /r/reddit.com

The change comes after the company took an official stance against revenge porn in March.

Reddit also surveyed over 15,000 redditors last month, and the results of the study led it to believe that the stress of negative responses make people uncomfortable commenting in the first place.

It also found active redditors will often not recommend the site to others because they don’t want their friends to see some of the negative content on the site. Hopefully a clear policy against harassment could change that.

➤ Promote ideas, protect people [Reddit]

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