It’s important to note that jailbait featured girls who were intentionally posed/looked much younger than bordering 17. I think people might try to justify it/imagine it as older looking teenagers, it was not.
The mods/power users also traded CSAM, and comment sections were used for trading the real thing. There may have been official rules against it, but these communities had codes.
There was also violentacrez little empire. I don’t understand what purpose a community like “picsofdeadkids” has. I think even if you are a free speech absolutist you can question what obligation Reddit had to host such content.
Pointing out how fucked up it was wasn’t very popular at the time - it was all about the “free speech”. This was the era of professional quote makers and dictionary definitions of ephebophilia. Reddit refused to take any action on jailbait until the Anderson Cooper special. Violentacrez was doxxed by Gawker, if you just look at the list of subreddit names it’s enough.
Factor in the plausible idea that Ghislaine Maxwell may have been a Reddit power user…