Wikipedia:Disturbing or upsetting content
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Some pages on Wikipedia contain content that is necessarily disturbing or upsetting, in order to describe historical events and medical conditions. These pages may trigger flashbacks in posttraumatic stress disorder sufferers, which may be uncomfortable.
On Wikipedia Pages
editWikipedia tries to describe tragic events and medical conditions, especially those resulting in deformity and subsequent stigma, with due sensitivity towards those concerned and with an eye towards only giving basic facts and not opinion, in line with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy. However, sometimes giving disturbing or upsetting details is necessary to the understanding of the article, and is unavoidable in order for Wikipedia to be a comprehensive, quality encyclopedia. Remember, it is the user's choice to view an article.
Outside Links
editIn order to describe a medical condition fully, it is sometimes necessary to provide links to pictures which some people may find distressing, which we do not want to show on the main site. Wikipedia cannot be held responsible for the content of these external links. On pages where the Disturbing or Upsetting Content warning is present, we recommend that you exercise your judgement as to whether to click on any links in the article text-usually, details of what the website linked to contains is printed next to the link.
On some pages, such as Shock sites, there are links to content that is deliberately designed to be frightening or upsetting. Again, most of the time there are significant indications as to what the link shows in the article text or beside the link, and beyond that we cannot take any responsibility for their contents.