An online decency moderator's advice: Blur your eyes
"When I left, I didn't shake anyone's hand for three years. I'd seen what people do and how disgusting they are. I didn't want to touch anyone. I was disgusted by humanity."
Roz Bowden is talking about her time as a content moderator at MySpace, viewing the very worst the internet could throw at her so that others didn't have to. [...]
Facebook now has 7,500 content moderators working around the globe 24 hours a day, and they regularly view images and videos showing depraved content, from child sexual abuse, to bestiality, beheadings, torture, rape and murder.
Now one of them is suing the social network for psychological trauma after watching thousands of hours of toxic and disturbing content. Selena Scola claims that Facebook and Pro Unlimited, the firm to which the social network contracted the work, failed to keep her emotionally safe.
She claims that she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the things she has seen online. [...]
Facebook screens for resilience, with pre-training for all its moderators to explain what is expected in the job and a minimum of 80 hours with an instructor using a replica of the system, before reviewers are let loose in the real world.
It also employs four clinical psychologists, and all content reviewers have access to mental health resources.
Farcebook needs to be sued for a lot of things ...
The way I see it people tend to be assholes online because they can from the safety of anonymity, its the base level human trait. Hence the dissemination of all of that shit on farcebook and the level of aggression seen on there, and even here sometimes, when certain people just have to get the last word and 'be right' because it is easier hiding behind a keyboard than having a conversation.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
...Now one of them is suing the social network for psychological trauma after watching thousands of hours of toxic and disturbing content. Selena Scola claims that Facebook and Pro Unlimited, the firm to which the social network contracted the work, failed to keep her emotionally safe.
...
Facebook screens for resilience, with pre-training for all its moderators to explain what is expected in the job and a minimum of 80 hours with an instructor using a replica of the system, before reviewers are let loose in the real world.
It also employs four clinical psychologists, and all content reviewers have access to mental health resources.
So, Selena knew what the job entailed, was trained and screened for suitability to task, she wasn't coerced into the job, and she could have quit at any time. But the employer is responsible for her not quitting, or taking the job in the first place. Right. Of course. Obviously.
