Playboy says it will stop publishing fully nude female photos

NEW YORK (AP) — You won't find any naked women in the pages of Playboy.

The magazine confirms that as of next March, it will no longer publish photos of fully nude women. Readers will still see women in provocative poses, but they won't be fully nude.

It marks a major shift for the magazine -- which broke new ground when it was created in 1953, with Marilyn Monroe on its first cover.

It's also the latest move by Playboy away from images of full nudity, which were banned from the magazine's website last year.

The CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Scott Flanders, tells the New York Times that there's an entirely different political and sexual climate today than there was in 1953 -- and he says it's largely due to the efforts of Playboy creator Hugh Hefner to "expand those freedoms."

He also points out that these days, on the Internet, "you're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free."