Commons:Child protection

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Commons takes concerns seriously with regard to the safety of children using the site. Editors who attempt to use Commons to pursue or facilitate inappropriate adult–child relationships or to advocate inappropriate adult–child relationships (e.g. by expressing the view that inappropriate relationships are not harmful to children) will be indefinitely blocked.

Terms of use

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Wikimedia Commons and the Terms of Use for all Wikimedia projects prohibit:

  • Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law[1] concerning child pornography;
  • Encouraging, grooming, or advocating for others to create or share child pornography; and
  • Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority where you are if higher than 18 years, for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.

Editors may be indefinitely blocked on Commons for violating these terms on any Wikimedia project or via an action of the Wikimedia Foundation Office, globally locked. Because of the differences between these prohibited actions, they are handled differently.

Enforcement and Reporting

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For posts of child pornography

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Three things must be done to report child pornography on Wikimedia Commons.

  1. (optional, but highly recommended) Privately (e.g. via email or IRC direct message) reach out to a recently active administrator. In the email, include a link to the file page where the child pornography is, and ask them to delete it. The administrator may also block the user who posted child pornography.
  2. Email the oversight team at oversight-commons@lists.wikimedia.org. Include a link to the file page where the child pornography is or was, and ask them to suppress it. The oversighter may also block the user who posted child pornography. If you don't hear back from the oversight team reasonably promptly, please contact the Wikimedia Stewards by email at stewards-oversight@wikimedia.org, telling them that you have previously contacted the Commons Oversight team but have not yet received a reply.
  3. Email the Wikimedia Foundation's Trust and Safety team at legal-reports@wikimedia.org. In the email, include a link to the file page where the child pornography is or was. They can remove the child pornography from the servers completely, can globally ban the user who posted it with global locks of all the user's associated accounts, and will make all needed reports, including to law enforcement.

For other Terms of Use violations

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Reports of editors:

  1. encouraging, grooming, or advocating for others to create or share child pornography,
  2. soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority where you are if higher than 18 years, for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors, or
  3. attempting to pursue or facilitate inappropriate adult–child relationships,

should be made to the Wikimedia Foundation by email at legal-reports@wikimedia.org. The Foundation may globally ban offending users.

For advocating for inappropriate adult–child relationships

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Because comments posted on Commons suggesting that an editor might be a pedophile might pose a serious risk of libel actions, or could involve unacceptable privacy issues for the editor or a child, it is recommended that violations of this policy be made known to the Wikimedia Commons Oversight Team by email at oversight-commons@lists.wikimedia.org.

If there must be community discussion, it should be initiated on a separate subpage of Commons:Administrators' noticeboard/User problems. Comments posted on Commons outside of these venues that suggest that an editor may be a pedophile should be removed by any editor, and may be RevDeleted or oversighted. As we do not wish to intimidate those bringing legitimate concerns to light, no penalty shall be applied to those making such comments in good faith before they have been notified of this policy. If a discussion raising concerns about an editor's potential violations of this policy does not find that that editor has violated this policy, that discussion will be deleted unless the editor prefers otherwise.

When an editor is blocked under this policy, the blocking administrator should use neutral block summaries, and should disable the editor's access to the on-site user email interface. The editor's ability to edit their talk page should be retained unless it is abused.

Warning: in some countries (such as the UK) there may be particular obligations (possibly limited to professionals working with children) to report certain types of suspected criminal activity to the authorities. In general, users subject to such obligations are expected to be aware of them and to act accordingly - but in an internet context such obligations may sometimes arise unexpectedly across borders. If in doubt, users should contact the relevant local authorities for advice on how to proceed. Admins handling such situations may in addition contact the WMF legal department.

Advice for younger editors

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  • If you are a younger editor and feel that another person on Commons is behaving in a way that you feel threatens your personal safety, or worries you even a little bit, do not respond to this person in any way, but tell a responsible adult, and ask them to look at this page.
  • Never respond to an improper email delivered via Commons, or use the "email this user" feature to contact someone who might be a threat to you, as this will disclose your email address and other sensitive information to the person who mailed you.
  • Never give out personal information to anyone on Wikimedia Commons, even people who say they are trying to help you, without consulting an adult you trust.
  • Think carefully about how your contributions could affect your privacy and security - if you feel that a photo or other material you've contributed to Commons may reveal personal information about you, or is contributing to improper advances, e-mail an administrator to have it deleted or redacted. Learn about EXIF information and consider whether any of the data (such as time or GPS coordinates) could put you at risk; people will be glad to help you to remove such information if necessary.
  • If you have received emails asking for sex or suggesting an in-person meeting, you are strongly urged to work with your parents/guardians, your Internet service provider, and local authorities to protect yourself. Depending on your situation, some effective steps may include disabling your Commons email, retiring your Wikimedia account (then, if desired, starting a new one which cannot be linked to the old account or your personal information), changing your email address or internet provider, tightening your home security, and of course, pursuing prosecution of the offending party.

Notes

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  1. "Applicable law" is understood as law which requires the Wikimedia Foundation to act. The Wikimedia Foundation is based in California, and some of its servers are based in Florida, and others elsewhere, which may affect which laws are applicable.

See also

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