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Warning:  Disturbing photograph

According to a May 7th report from the World Net Daily, the FBI is investigating an online photograph of a young girl that may be in violation of federal child-pornography laws.

Originally from the 1976 Scorpions "Virgin Killer" record album cover, the disturbing photograph was later banned in the US due to its extremely controversial nature and was replaced with a more appropriate photo.

As of this morning, the photograph is still online.

According to WND, this is not the only instance of explicit images, videos or recordings on Wikipedia:

It took only seconds for me to find many explicit photographs, images, recordings and videos on Wikipedia. One video should have been in an x-rated movie, not in a website that is often used by children to work on homework or other various projects.

"Wikipedia's goal is to provide an encyclopedia that contains the sum of all human knowledge. To that end, Wikipedia does not censor objectionable material", Mark Pelligrini, Wikipedia Regional Representative told WND.

In another statement given to WND, Jay Walsh, the head of communications said, "We don't censor any of the content. There are a number of images that people might be alarmed by. … You could open up a classic Britannica or World Book Encyclopedia, and you'd find entries on sex and sexual topics, perhaps not as deep or prolific as you might find on Wikipedia, but that's kind of a reality of the 21st century."

Censorship?

As someone who personally uses Wikipedia, I was unaware these types of disturbing images were part of Wikipedia.   As an online safety advocate and someone who works with over 500 young children every week in a computer lab environment, this is very concerning.

Thanks Deborah!

Wikipedia's deletion policy