Fortunately, compared to what the people in the article deal with, it was relatively tame. But it still took its mental toll - having to look at dick pics all day is not healthy.
Why? I mean, if you are just looking at nudity - even if the men are 'prepared for sex' - at the end of the day, it is just nudity. I've worked in nursing homes. Other folks work at hospitals. Lots of folks see nudity everyday. Lots of those folks see genitals daily, in a much more intimate way than a dick pic.
I don't really get what is so unhealthy about it. There is nothing inherently wrong with simple nudity in general, even when it is suggestive.
Finally, you curtail your argument by saying “simple nudity”. Trust and Safety exists because of context and action. These arent tasteful nudes or art people are looking at.
I wont speculate too much, but the intent of a picture, the context and the target make a difference. Sending a pic to someone not interested in them, or a minor - has a vastly different connotation.
Heck, it isn't even universally linked to sex. I don't have a penis, but from what I understand, they do randomly become erect and cycle through this stage during sleep.
A penis, even in hand and suggestive, is still simple nudity. None of the people in the center have had it sent to them personally, and surely they know.
Harassment using pictures of yourself is different: That's harassment, and should be frowned upon. They are still using simple nudity to do it, and the nudity isn't the issue.
That being said, if it was a picture of a penis erect in sleep, the context of "probably not consensualy taken" on itself makes it more disturbing. And seeing a lot of these can easily make you more paranoid to sleep where you can't lock door and everything.
Spending time defining only the non problem parts is a luxury. Theres pages of que to clean and no one to do it. I need a definition, plus examples and tests that a team can actually use daily.
Furthermore - unsolicited sexual imagery IS traumatic to a swathe of people (survivors of abuse) and illegal in many cultures.
That moderators get affected seeing such content should not be a surprise. The very least that happens to mods is desensitization. Paranoia, PTSD, high risk behaviors are common fates if you work in tough ques.
In the context of a dating site, sending someone a picture of a steak is inappropriate and creepy. Is the user trying to communicate that they see someone as a piece of meat to be used for pleasure? Is it a threat ("I'm going to cut you up")?
Likewise, there's nothing inherently wrong with a picture of a penis. But seeing first hand the aggression and intent to humiliate or victimize that's behind a dick pic is what's disturbing. See enough of that every day and you'd lose your faith in men. That's the problem for the moderators.
If you had to view that harassment secondhand every single day, wouldn't you feel a little disgusted after a while?
Sure, you can look at it and say "this isn't about me", but does that make the disgust go away?
I think a big part of it is adequate training; Think of surgery, a trained surgeon seems to be able to cut someone open (to help obviously) and go to bed fine that night but if I ever had to do it, regardless of the outcome I most likely wouldn't be able to sleep.
An adequately trained content moderator should be equipped with whatever emotional tools needed before they're expected to moderate their company's content safely.
worse, he has to look at actual diseased dicks all day.
not enough eye bleach in kiev
To expand a bit. One of the reasons why it could be seen as unhealthy.
You are moderating profile pics. These are picture that will be shown publicly on someone’s profile.
What you receive are a large number of dick pics.
You reject the pics explaining why they are inappropriate and just receive more.
What do you start to think about men in general?
Would looking at human hands all day "take its mental toll"? Probably because it would be as boring as watching paint dry, and doing that day in day out is not good for one's sanity.
I think the Anglosphere's over-sexulisation of any and all nudity makes it worse than it needs to be (I think my exposure to e.g. Germany's sauna culture on a few trips has really helped me form a healither attitudes to nudity in a dozen or two hours than the rest of my life over here, and that kind of thing being more common would probably help people be able to more easily shake it off) but I think the tramatic part is the stalker behaviour and being directly targeted by someone with a lewd motive. And it being done when the person sending it knows it's undesired and forcing them to look is kind of almost rapey.
So for me, I'd find it creepy if somebody was targeting me with that, but would have zero issues approaching it from "I'm here to filter out the dick picks so I'm going to see a lot of anatomy". This is very different to e.g. gore where I actualy do feel a bit physically sick if I know it's real, but if I randomly see nudity that's not motivated at me it's basically nothing.
Completely? Yeah, I don't see it. Maybe because I'm German and there's very little fuss made about nudity over here*, which in turn makes me very confident it's just a cultural thing. Society taught you that there's something special about genitals, so you start believing it. Most people can probably overcome this through simple exposure or doctors would have a problem.
What's going to matter more is the setting. I'm guessing the pictures are supposed to be sexual, which might affect viewers more than the fact it's a picture of a penis.
> There are many women who are traumatized by getting sent dick photos.
I'm sorry, but if seeing a penis can traumatize someone, there's something wrong with them - and it's not the fact they've been sent a dick pic. It doesn't excuse others being intrusive or exploiting that vulnerability, but it's still a vulnerability that is way abnormal and should probably be addressed.
Overall I agree with you that it can affect someone, but I'd do so with more nuance than using words like "trauma".
*There's way more "extreme" examples than Germans, even ignoring our animal relatives.
USA and UK are just exceptionally prudish (by Western standards at least).
A urologist can look at penises all day and not care because there's no ill intent behind the display. On a dating site that's absolutely not the case.
at the same level as watching paint dry all day.