According to a report in The New York Times, Wikipedia, the online open-source encyclopedia, intends imposing new restrictions on the editing of encyclopedia entries about living people - to ensure more discipline among the users, and to wedge high-profile defacement that has tarnished some pages.

The change in the Wikipedia policy is aimed at addressing an elementary problem affecting the site - that of the reliability of the information contained in the articles, more so when anyone can change an entry, and nobody corroborates the genuineness of the information!

Though the intended move will imply a notable restrain in the power that Wikipedia has bestowed upon anyone who desires to change any article, it will deal with the glaring anomaly that has blighted the site for nearly a decade.

As per the new policy, though anyone can still edit the articles on the site, the edits will not be registered till the time they receive the approval of an 'experienced' Wikipedia editor. Only if the testing pages respond well to a test run will these changes be incorporated in the article.

Saying that, with time, Wikipedia will become a tightly-controlled site, Eric Goldman, from the Santa Clara University School of Law, noted: "They haven't closed the drawbridge. People can still get in. But it keeps going up and up and up."