Table Of Contents
What Is Content Moderation? Keys To Understand How It Works
Last Updated on: November 16th, 2024
Content moderation is exactly what it sounds like: You determine whether or not a media item contains material that violates our rules regarding decency, morality, and substance.
If the answer is ‘no’, then you remove it from circulation. If the answer is ‘yes’, however, you adjust its bar accordingly and give it more leeway so that users can make informed decisions about what content is suitable for their interests.
There are five key elements to understanding how content moderation works:
What does Content moderation mean?
Content moderation technology is a method of screening content that’s invisible to the user, but very important for the market. When users share media items, admins can see what they post.
However, they don’t see their posts and comments when it is reviewed for content. Instead, admins see the posts and comments of other users that they have chosen to “moderate” those items.
This is not merely screening content. It’s creating a new ecosystem for media; a new social structure where some content (posting and commenting) is moderated and rated, and other content is not.
This new ecosystem is designed so users are not just sharing content but are also able to comment. It is often called a “social” medium because you can interact with other people, not just post content and get attention.
What Can Be Moderation-Rated In The Platform?
Two broad categories of content that can be moderated:
– Adult content. This includes material that includes nudity, graphic sexual activity, crime, drugs, and other items that may be illegal to distribute in some countries.
– Child sexual abuse content. This includes material that includes sexual activity between people who are not old enough to consent to it, such as children under the age of consent.
Why Is Content Moderation Important
In a digital world, it’s important to determine what is appropriate for a platform. Nobody wants to allow things that are indecent, immoral, or that violate community standards.
This also includes the need to allow things that are illegal or potentially harmful to users. Even if those things don’t violate community standards, they may be against the law and/or harmful to users.
For example, an image of a naked child may be child pornography, even if it isn’t sexually explicit. An image of a child smoking marijuana may be illegal and harmful to minors. This never should be allowed.
Relationship Between Content Moderation And the Protection Of Children
Our goal with moderating content is to provide certain protections for our users and the public while also providing some control over what people see and do when they use our platform.
We want to protect children as much as possible by moderating certain types of content. When we see this content, we don’t allow people to share, comment, or like it.
We also warn users that they may be seeing this type of content, so they can decide whether they want to see it or not. We also want to create more of a digital environment where adults feel safe sharing their thoughts and experiences.
We don’t want to remove the ability for people to post and comment, so we moderate a little to keep this in check.
Ways Content Moderation Works
Let’s take a look at those ways content moderation can work.
First, a machine learner is used to understand the context of posts. For example, if anyone sees a post containing sexual content between an adult and a minor, they can use the context of the post and the person’s previous posts to understand how likely it is that the person wants to share that content. Then, human moderation is needed to determine whether a post should be removed or adjusted.
The machine-learning technology helps to understand the context of the post, but human moderators are the ones who make the final decision about what is appropriate for the platform. Third, human moderation determines whether a post is adult or child sexual abuse content. Fourth, human moderators determine whether a comment should be removed.
Relationship Between Content Moderation And the Protection Of Children
With all of this laid out, it’s easy to see how content moderation works and why you need to consider it in your digital strategy. First, you need to figure out the rules governing how your platform will be used. This includes determining what types of content are not allowed. You also want to think about how to completely enforce your rules.
Next, you need to think about how you want users to interact with each other and your platform. For example, do you want users to share content, comment on content, or both? How do you want users to interact with each other?
Finally, you need to decide on a content moderation strategy and put it into practice. This could be using a third-party service, implementing moderation within your platform, or using machine learning and human moderation.
Each strategy comes with its own benefits and drawbacks.
Summing up
When it comes to moderating content on your platform, you need to understand what the rules are that govern how your users will use the platform.
You also need to consider how you want users to interact with each other and your platform. Finally, you need to implement content moderation in your platform.
This could be by using a third-party service, implementing moderation within your platform, or using machine learning and human moderation. Each strategy comes with its own benefits and drawbacks.
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