Facebook Reverses Ban On Led Zeppelin Album Cover Featuring Naked Children
MENLO PARK (CBS SF / CNN) -- Facebook has reversed a ban it placed on a classic Led Zeppelin album cover that features images of naked children.
The cover of the British rock band's 1973 album "Houses of the Holy" was posted to Facebook by the page Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this week, but was removed because the Menlo Park-based company said it violated its policies.
The Grammy-nominated album's artwork shows stylized images of nude children climbing the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
But in a statement to Ultimate Classic Rock (UCR), a rock fan site with more than a million followers on Facebook, the social media giant said the image had been restored.
"As our community standards explain, we don't allow nude images of children on Facebook," a spokesperson told UCR. "But we know this a culturally significant image. Therefore, we're restoring the posts we removed."
CNN has contacted Facebook for comment.
The album cover, designed by British design group Hipgnosis, features images of siblings Stefan and Samantha Gates.
In a 2010 BBC radio documentary, Stefan said he had been disturbed by the cover for much of his life and had never listen to the album.
Facebook's guidelines state that they "do not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers children."
The site adds that it often removes nude images of children shared with good intentions by parents, "to help avoid the possibility of other people reusing or misappropriating the images."
Well-received by critics, "Houses of the Holy" features some of the band's most popular singles, including "D'yer Mak'er" and "Over the Hills and Far Away."
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