Translations:Manual:$wgAllowExternalImages/25/en

To prevent (or reduce the impact of) certain types of vandalism. People can still upload offensive images to your wiki, but this option will prevent people inline linking to offensive images, which might make that kind of vandalism less prevalent. If you do allow external images, then removing abusive image links is always a matter of a simple wiki edit (followed by whatever conflict resolution/banning action you wish to take)