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Screening the Web for Porn and Violence Takes Its Psychological Toll

by Amar Toor on July 19, 2010 at 04:58 PM

Saddened Web Viewer Most policemen, social workers and ER medics are subjected to a wide array of lurid sights and stories on a daily basis, simply because their jobs demand it. The same can be said, apparently, for Web content screeners.

As more sites have adopted platforms that allow users to create and post their own content, demand for the workers who screen that content has skyrocketed. Although social networks and other sites have experimented with software that can detect inappropriate material, human judgment about what is and what isn't kosher remains crucial. In response, many companies have begun outsourcing Web monitoring to third-party companies like Telecommunications on Demand, which pays $8 to $12 an hour to anyone willing to sit in front of a computer and spend his or her day looking at 80,000 images -- many mundane, but some downright scarring.

"You have 20-year-old kids who get hired to do content review, and who get excited because they think they are going to see adult porn," former MySpace security officer Hemanshu Nigam tells the New York Times. "They have no idea that some of the despicable and illegal images they will see can haunt them for the rest of their lives." One review firm that employs workers in the Philippines recently hired psychologist Patricia M. Laperal to examine its screeners' mental health, and her conclusions weren't exactly optimistic. Laperal found that workers exposed to graphic images all day were more likely to become depressed, struggle to develop relationships and suffer from diminishing libidos. Some workers reported having vomited or cried after viewing certain pictures or videos.

It should be noted that not all major websites outsource their surveillance. YouTube, for example, relies upon user alerts to notify moderators, who are hired on one-year contracts, and Facebook has a similarly user-based system. Others, however, rely on low-wage workers to execute these unpleasant tasks, often without offering them any psychological or therapeutic support. Last month, an industry group recommended that Congress provide financial incentives for companies to "address the psychological impact on employees of exposure to these disturbing images." And, in our opinion, lawmakers certainly need to act. There's nothing economically wrong with companies outsourcing their work to third-party corporations. But there is something profoundly immoral about subjecting people to psychologically damaging images, without giving them the proper infrastructure -- or salaries -- to help them cope. [From: New York Times, via: The Awl]

Tags: congress, facebook, moderation, moderator, netiquette, outsourcing, porn, psychology, screening, top, user-generated-content, violence, web, youtube

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