Child sexual exploitation policy project
This page documents an ongoing policy project by the Wikimedia Foundation.
For child protection policies on Meta-Wiki, refer to Meta:Child protection policy. For other wikis, see d:Q11157638. |
This policy was launched in January 2024. It is available on the Foundation governance wiki. |
In 2023, the Wikimedia Foundation's Trust and Safety team is improving its child protection policies to better reflect evolving industry norms and approaches and to build alignment with functionaries across communities in the light of the expanded Terms of Use 2023 update language on the subject area. Currently, this work involves listening sessions with various community and industry stakeholders.
Goals
The ultimate goal of this work is a set of policies that will allow Trust and Safety to improve existing practices addressing issues of misconduct on the projects, including but not limited to:
- The upload and dissemination of illegal imagery, specifically regarding CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material), in parity with industry partners
- Advocacy or attempted normalization of pedophilia, sexualization of minors, or child abuse
- Handling situations involving child abuse-related offenses
The finished policy will be publicly available, similar to the Foundation Global Ban policy. Trust and Safety will also maintain corresponding internal policies and processes to handle these issues in line with the publicly available policy.
Responsibilities and stakeholders
This project will rely on a number of stakeholders, both within the Foundation and across the communities. Wikimedia community members have historically dealt with many of these issues, and it is important that any new policy builds on their knowledge and experience.
The ultimately accountable team for this project is Trust and Safety (T&S), who are also responsible for the development of the policy and processes related to it. Among the teams to be consulted on the work include:
- Community Resilience and Sustainability
- Global Advocacy (within Legal)
- Human Rights
- Legal
We also hope to learn from groups within the communities how their communities currently handle these issues. At the moment, we intend to engage with advanced rights holders who either directly deal with content in these topic areas, or who T&S maintains a formal relationship with. This will include oversighters, CheckUsers, Stewards, and members of local Arbitration Committees.
Timeline
This timeline is subject to change.
Done January 3, 2023 – January 27, 2023: Prioritization and estimation, allocation of resources- Done January 30, 2023 – April 28, 2023: Liaison and research work — initial community and industry listening sessions and information gathering
- Done April 3, 2023 – June 2, 2023: Additional liaison work — discussions with individuals such as community groups, experienced users, and members of the Foundation's Legal department; analysis of listening sessions
- Done June 5, 2023 – June 28, 2023: Documentation and drafting
- Done July 3, 2023 – July 28, 2023: Legal alignment and implementation of policies
How can you help?
If you are interested in participating in this process, you are welcome to contact the Trust and Safety team with questions, suggestions, or concerns via email at ca
wikimedia
org.
Due to the nature of this project and the material and behavior that it is intended to address, we will not be holding a public consultation around these issues. This project will primarily involve direct conversations with community groups who have experience dealing with the topic.