White label social network site provider Ning has decided to ban porn focused social networks from January 1.

Ning’s Gina Bianchini said in a post to the Ning blog that the porn sites had a number of issues, including low take up of premium options (so they aren’t paying their way), issues with DMCA notices and related issues with selling advertising. Bianchini also said that having legal porn was encouraging illegal porn on Ning as well.

In some ways its always been a little strange that a funded serious Valley company headed by Marc Andreessen (Netscape and others) also hosted some of the biggest porn social networking sites as well. Not that there’s anything wrong with porn, but it’s something most tech firms usually avoid. The cost though of the decision will be interesting: Ning may claim its not worth while them hosting these sites, but a quick glance at Ning’s stats show porn related sites scattered in the top ten most popular social networks on Ning, and not having those there must mean a hit at some level to Ning’s traffic numbers.

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