Harvey Levin’s TMZ.com used to be a media darling, with the blogs rushing to defend its easy jokes and celebrity pitfall chronicling. But lately, the backlash has been stirring, whether its the site’s picking on aging or weight-gaining stars or its borderline racist humor. And now it’s run afoul of a single media practice that’s actually for the good of society: protecting the identities of sex abuse victims.

In reporting on allegations of sexual abuse against Billy Bob Thornton’s son, TMZ not only named the 14-year-old boy (not that it’d be terribly hard to figure out), but also runs a photo of the boy, who, courtesy a relationship with a 22-year-old woman, is the “alleged victim of ‘unlawful sex.’”