Norman Rockwell's "Girl in the Mirror" |
Bliss Hanlin, Community Manager at eModeration.
Whereas ten years ago, teens asked each other if they were Hot or Not and only two years ago were hiding their identities on Formspring, this year's tween and teen set no longer feel the need to shield themselves with avatars and usernames, perfectly willing to mesh their online and offline selves regardless of the consequences. "Who am I?" is a perennial favorite for tweens and teens, but this generation seems to be trading introspection for crowd-sourcing, letting strangers' comments be the mirror that reflects self.
Recent news articles have made much of the "Am I Pretty/Am I Ugly" phenomenon hitting YouTube, where tweens and teens film themselves asking painfully direct questions of the viewer. Despite YouTube's "thirteen and over" user policy, the videos remain online and accessible to viewers with some videos achieving over 4 million views. The comments are only sometimes kind. "do you think that i am pretty or do you think that i am ugly plz comment and tell me be honnest to" is a typical sample, Girl33 (username changed to protect user privacy) asking for feedback, any kind will do. In return, she receives a mix of compliments, denigrations, sexual come-ons, pornographic objectification, slams about "attention whoring" and pep talks about inner beauty and self-confidence. Is it cyber-bullying if the original author "asks for it" and does not self-define as a victim? Certainly cyber cruelty is rampant in these responses.
Tumblr Stakes a Stand
Meanwhile, microblogging platform Tumblr found itself recently having to make a public announcement that certain types of self-harm encouragement topics (thinspo, cutting, etc.) would no longer be permitted on the service. Blogs that "glorify or promote anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders; self-mutilation; or suicide" are messages and points of view that they strongly oppose, and don't want to be hosting.
Tumblr is choosing to proactively moderate for the type of community it wishes to maintain. Their new removal policy is coupled with an automatic referral to help hotlines and displaying "public service announcement" kinds of information when sensitive keywords are searched. Their preferred method of contact is an old-school email address: policy at tumblr.com.
Tumblr's interventionist stance is in line with Facebook's policy, as well. On Facebook's Community Standards page, Facebook flatly states the site "is not a place for self-destructive behavior" and that they "don't allow the promotion of suicide, cutting, eating disorders, or illegal drug use."
The "Under Thirteens"
Facebook's profile reporting mechanism also includes an all inclusive "This person isn't who she says she is" - a fair enough statement to describe someone who has attested she has reached the age of thirteen when in reality, has not.
YouTube at this point is relying on parent intervention when it comes to underage users. Their flagging mechanism for videos does not include an 'under the age of thirteen' category and their Community Guidelines fail to include guidelines for interacting with an under thirteen or legal minor. Their Safety Center tips, buried several links down from the Guidelines document, reinforces the under thirteen prohibition, but offers no procedure for notifying YouTube of those types of accounts. In a world where 21 year-olds successfully role-play as tweens and girls maintain fictional identities, identifying who meets an age requirement relies heavily on self-reporting slip-ups and less on visual identification.
Should YouTube have a simple way for members to report under the age of thirteen profiles? COPPA does not demand it, but common sense says yes. No one is arguing that it is a global social platform's responsibility to provide a nurturing environment for its users, but certainly there is an inherent shared responsibility between provider and members to ensure that the Terms of Service, starting with the basic age requirement rule, be upheld.
Best Practices for Teen and Tween Community Management
Lessons we can learn from this online tween angst soup of eating disorders, appearance anxiety, and glorification of self-harm are straight-forward:
- As community professionals in charge of an age specific, tween to teen community, it is in the community's best interest to proactively identify age associated trends and proactively define a cohesive community guideline document.
- It is in the community's best interest to have mechanisms in place in order to be able to enforce that Guidelines or Terms document with a sound moderation and member audit process.
- An entry process must be established where a COPPA compliant check and affirmation can be made of the member's age and acceptance of the Terms of Use.
- If possible, tools should be made available to the community so that they can self-select and self-edit their community user experience, including providing a way to "silence" or "ignore" another community member. (An in-depth study that discusses the need for more player/user/member agency in the community management process is Kafal and Searle's excellent "Safeguarding Play in Virtual Worlds: Designs and Perspectives on Tween Player Participation in Community Management.")
- If the community is not an appropriate place to ask for appearance or personality rating ("Am I pretty?, etc.), if that type of question would drown discussion; derail the original topic or purpose of the conversation; create a fertile environment for cyber-bullying or sexual predators, then that type of question should either be given a highly moderated, appropriate area - or not be allowed.
- If the community cannot responsibly support and guide appropriately a young person posting about self-harm, then the community reporting process must be able to support that kind of escalation from its memberbase and keyword tracking should be in place in order to proactively and swiftly identify the potential problem area.
- Recognizing the component of exaggerated or stylized presentation and interaction, especially those in girl-centric communities, is a responsibility for teen community professionals. The concept of "drama" as a distancing mechanism helps teens retain agency and form identity, but a culture of pervasive "drama" in a teen community results in a chaotic and antagonistic closed society. Intervention via a sound moderation policy is crucial in maintaining positive environment.
- Not every tween/teen community must result in a "Mean Girls" or "Lord of the Flies" scenario. Taking a social approach in fostering a culture of positive growth is key in maintaining a healthy teen and tween community, so that the participants can help maintain the "tone" of the community from a peer to peer stance with direction from the Community Managers. Content seeding, participant reward/validation, behavior modeling, gamification, and one on one interaction can all be employed to foster positive community citizenship and community led moderation.