I recently watched a report from KTN news in Kenya called The Web Gatekeepers: The Dark Side of Content Moderation.
The video interviewed various people involved in the content moderation business, including Content Moderators and providers in the market. The conversation around protecting content moderators is more critical than ever.
Content Moderators are frequently exposed to distressing material, which can lead to lasting psychological harm.
This article examines the psychological risks associated with content moderation work and explores how effective, tailored mental health strategies can provide meaningful protection.
The High Stakes of Content Moderation
Sama, a data annotation services company headquartered in California that employs Content Moderators around the world, is facing allegations of poor working conditions and inadequate mental health support.
The moderators claim that they were subjected to harmful content without the provision of proper psychological care. They argue that the company violated labor laws by failing to offer sufficient mental health services and adequate compensation for the traumatic nature of their work.
Content moderation is a job that often goes unnoticed, but it is critical for maintaining safe and healthy online environments. In the interview, content moderators discuss the severe psychological impacts of their work, which have been brought to light.
These individuals are tasked with reviewing vast amounts of disturbing user-generated content (UGC), including hate speech, extremist violence, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), as they train the OpenAI model.
The Invisible Burden
In the report on protecting content moderators, Content Moderators described how their exposure to graphic and distressing content is relentless, leaving little room for emotional recovery.
PTSD and Secondary Traumatic Stress
This relentless exposure can cause immense psychological distress and lead to vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and even clinically recognized conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with symptoms including severe anxiety, sleep disturbances, and emotional numbness.
The interview revealed that many moderators feel isolated and unsupported in their roles. Despite their critical importance, they often work under high pressure, having to complete a specific number of cases a day, with insufficient mental health resources.
This situation not only affects their personal well-being but also impacts their professional performance and job satisfaction, underscoring the urgent need to address content moderators’ mental health.
Moral Injury and Emotional Labor
The psychological harm extends beyond trauma from the content itself. Moderators engage in significant emotional labor, making difficult, high-stakes decisions under immense pressure.
When company policies or inaction force moderators to violate their own moral codes, they can suffer from moral injury. This can manifest as feelings of institutional betrayal, which fundamentally undermines their sense of psychological safety in the workplace.
Preventing Vicarious Trauma Through Early Support
The good news is that the risks of developing vicarious trauma (VT), burnout, and other mental health issues in content moderation roles can be significantly reduced by prioritizing the well-being of these employees. This highlights the importance of effective preventative mental health for moderators.
Content Moderators should have ample support, such as:
- Clear information during onboarding about recognizing mental health symptoms, especially VT
- Implementing comprehensive online community moderator health programs that offer peer support
- Psychoeducation and one-on-one counseling during work hours
Early intervention, such as providing “well-being time” to help regulate stress responses, can prevent chronic hypervigilance and reduce the risk of VT.
Effective Coping Strategies for Moderators
A 2024 study on PTSD symptoms found that engaging in brief, distracting activities like playing Tetris after encountering traumatic content can reduce intrusive memories more effectively than other methods. This suggests that structured breaks are one of many effective coping strategies.
It is essential to understand different coping styles, promoting healthy, problem-focused coping while discouraging maladaptive ones like rumination or catastrophizing.
The Need for Specialist Mental Health Care
For me, the interview highlighted the need for companies to invest in specialist mental health care for content moderation teams. Standard employee assistance programs (EAPs) are inadequate for addressing the specific challenges that Content Moderators experience every day.
If you look at what our customers are providing for their Trust & Safety teams, they ensure there is specialized mental health support, which has been developed by Zevo, including:
Moderator Mental Health Risk Assessments
Zevo Health’s interaction with a new team of moderators always starts with our moderator mental health risk assessments, which involve an analysis of psychosocial hazards in the workplace, their level of risk (or injury potential), and implementing risk mitigation measures.
Additionally, we engage customers in a baseline audit of their teams’ psychological health and resilience using a mixed-methods approach, identifying correlations with work-related stressors.
Utilizing all this data, our therapists then work to develop a dedicated wellbeing program, in conjunction with the organization’s wellbeing lead, to support the moderators and ensure content moderators’ psychological health and safety.
Trauma-Informed Mental Health Consultants
Our specialized content moderator mental health consultants provide regular access to therapists (either onsite or digitally) who specialize in trauma, which can help moderators process and cope with the content they are exposed to.
We ensure that all our therapists are Master’s-educated, with three years of practical experience working with clients in both individual and group settings.
Peer Support and Remote Resources
Creating spaces where moderators can share their experiences with colleagues who understand the unique challenges of the job enhances team cohesion and maintains compliance with NDAs or other confidentiality agreements.
These groups can be offered in-person or as part of a suite of remote moderator mental health resources. Our onsite therapists facilitate regular group sessions which aim to reduce the overall cognitive load of the work, as well as giving moderators a safe and fun intervention where they can safely process any difficulties and get a break from their work.
Mental Resilience Training for Moderators
Programs that teach resilience skills can empower moderators to handle their responsibilities more effectively.
We provide evidence-based mental resilience training for moderators with our customers, which has been developed specifically for Content Moderators and their managers, using evidence-based therapeutic modalities that address unwanted or unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
This kind of specialized mental health training for digital moderators helps ensure that the mental health of everyone in the Trust and Safety team is prioritized and supported.
BPO and Off-Boarding Mental Health Support
Providing access to a therapist after a Content Moderator resigns or is made redundant helps ensure their mental health is supported and any issues that arise can be quickly worked through.
Many of our customers provide a series of off-boarding sessions for the Content Moderators when they leave, to ensure they are supported even post-exit. The duration differs depending on the customer and the type of content the moderator has been working with.
Some of our larger customers offer a full year of off-boarding sessions, which can be accessed at any time during that year. This is a key component of comprehensive BPO moderator mental health support, where turnover can be frequent.
Creating Supportive Wellness Programs
As well as providing interventions for the individual, we also work to improve the wider ecosystem surrounding Content Moderators that supports their mental health and wellbeing.
We work with our customers to develop or improve working policies that further create a supportive environment and form the backbone of effective content moderator wellness programs. This includes:
-
Reasonable Work Hours
Avoiding excessive exposure by limiting the number of hours moderators spend viewing harmful content.
-
Regular Breaks
Ensuring moderators have sufficient breaks to decompress and reduce cumulative stress.
-
Decompression Time
Allowing time for moderators to transition out of their work mindset before going home.
-
Recruitment Consultancy
Ensuring that the right candidates and the strongest profile of moderators is brought into the business.
-
T&S Teams Support
Working with QAs, policy, L&D, management, HR, and other functions that support Content Moderators directly or indirectly.
Actionable Content Moderator Health Solutions
The interview with Content Moderators serves as a stark reminder of the hidden costs of maintaining safe online spaces.
AI Moderation and Regulatory Pressures
As digital platforms continue to grow, with increasing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic moderation, the need for human oversight is greater than ever, especially with new regulations like the Online Safety Act and the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Organizations must recognize their responsibility to protect the mental health of those who protect their platforms.
- Providing specialized care and building a supportive work environment is not just an ethical imperative but also essential for sustaining an effective and resilient workforce.
- Partnering with a dedicated content moderator wellbeing company is essential.
By addressing these needs, we can ensure that content moderators receive the recognition and support they deserve, ultimately leading to healthier, more sustainable online communities for everyone.
Investing in comprehensive content moderator health support is an ethical responsibility and a strategic necessity.
Zevo Accreditation Program
Advance your skills with the Zevo Accreditation Program (ZAP), a CPD-approved certification for mental health professionals in Trust & Safety. Learn best-practice, evidence-based interventions to support Content Moderators and tackle risks like vicarious trauma and burnout.
