Recently, a former Facebook moderator sent a copy of the site's guidelines for acceptable content to the weblog magazine Gawker (you can also read it on Scribd, at http://www.scribd.com/gawker/d/81877124-Abuse-Standards-6-2-Operation-Manual), and it has been raising eyebrows. The summary cheat sheet reveals that Facebook community managers appear more concerned about exposure to sexual content than they are to portrayals of violence.
According to the document, no nudity or implied sexual activity is allowed (including female nipples when their outline is visible through clothing and unclothed breastfeeding), but photos of excessive bleeding from a flesh wound and crushed skulls and limbs are okay, as long as nothing inside them is showing.
Uncomfortable when it comes to sex and the female form, but okay with blood and violence? This sounds to me like the mindset of a 13-year-old boy. Which made me ask, has Facebook's target demographic shifted?
But is the mindset of a 13-year-old boy the correct one for a company that has 800 million people around the world using its software every day? It could be for many reasons. Is it the result of a concerted effort to educate users about what is and isn't permitted? Could it be an ongoing high-level review of what type of community management rules and guidelines best support Facebook's business model? Or maybe it's just to facilitate public discourse that supports community values? I guess it's time to wait and see.
