Wikipedia:Trigger warnings
 | 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. |
Wikipedia articles do not contain trigger warnings, content warnings, or NSFW labels. All pages are subject to the Wikipedia:Content disclaimer.
If you are interested in adding warnings to the top of the page, then you should know these things:
You probably don't want a trigger warning
editIf you've heard of a trigger warning, you probably heard about it in a blog post or a soundbite. Before you propose adding trigger warnings on the English Wikipedia, you need to know what it actually is.
- A trauma trigger only exists in people who developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of actual psychological trauma. A trauma trigger is created through the process of traumatic coupling, in which a benign thing (e.g., the sound of a motorcycle accelerating) gets incorrectly linked in the individual's mind to a dangerous situation (e.g., the sound of gunfire).
- PTSD is treatable. People who experienced disruptive trauma triggers should be in the care of licensed mental health professionals who can teach coping techniques and guide them through the process of encountering their triggers and managing their reactions to their triggers, or at least dealing with supportive, trustworthy people who know their individual situations.
- The guesses of well-meaning Wikipedia editors are not an adequate substitute for individual care, and our over-protective instincts may actually be harmful to them.
- Most trauma triggers are specific to the individual and either cannot be experienced on Wikipedia (e.g., a particular smell) or are extremely unlikely to be encountered on wiki (e.g., a particular sound).
- Even if two people were involved in the same traumatic incident and both developed PTSD, they probably won't have the same triggers. For example, for a traumatic medical incident, one might react to the smell of the disinfectant in the hospital, and the other might react to the sight of a man wearing blue surgical scrubs.
- Normal, healthy people who experience discomfort, including severe distress, when they see violent, racist, genocidal, or other anti-social content don't technically have trauma triggers. Humans are supposed to be uncomfortable when they encounter such content!
You probably want a "content warning" instead
editIf you want to put a note on a page saying things like:
- "This page contains sexual content or nudity."
- "This page contains content about violence."
- "This page contains images that some people may find offensive or distressing."
then you are not looking for a trigger warning; you're looking for a content warning.
In the English Wikipedia's early days, partly in response to editors adding spoiler alerts to articles about books and films, editors voted to adopt a standard of having Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles.
This was our decision, and we can change it. Some other Wikipedias already have; for example, the German Wikipedia provides a content disclaimer for medical articles. If you want to change this rule, then you will need to understand why this standard was adopted and is supported by some editors. Some of the reasons include the resulting maintenance burden, a belief that it provides little or no value, and the likelihood of disputes about which types of content and which articles should be tagged.
We struggle with NSFW concepts
editAnother thing to keep in mind: Editors do not agree on which content is not safe for work (NSFW).
Some cultures accept nudity but not violence, and others are the other way around. Some community-oriented cultures want to minimize other people's distress; some individualistic cultures want to protect editors' personal freedom to offend others.
Almost everyone thinks that their culture is normal and at least close to the correct approach. We have little empathy for people whose culture or response is different. Editors who come from a culture that accepts cartoon violence may not understand why people object to images of dead bodies; editors who come from a culture that thinks penises are an acceptable subject for a children's cartoon show do not understand why people object to photographs of genitalia. Editors from cultures that value civic virtue or formality in public spaces disagree with both of these positions.
The English Wikipedia has created several rules around this. For example, articles are WP:NOTCENSORED, but potentially distressing Wikipedia:Offensive material should not WP:SURPRISE readers. However, editors still struggle to understand and support people whose views differ from their own.