Under the radar
Some types of work appear to confer greater risk for trauma than others. Overall, estimates show that up to 8% of the U.S. population will develop PTSD at some point in their lives, Ms. Mathieu said.
For police officers, the rate is 15%. According to reporting by The Verge, lawyers in the Facebook lawsuit cited vicarious trauma rates of up to 50% among content moderators.
There are multiple reasons why content moderators suffer such high rates of mental health problems, Ms. Mathieu said. Content moderation is a low-paying, thankless, and solo job that can seem never-ending, she said.
Furthermore, content moderators are generally uninformed about the psychological risks associated with their occupation. They aren’t given the time to process what they are exposed to and generally don’t feel recognized or appreciated for the work they do.
That makes their jobs different from those of people such as law enforcement officers who investigate Internet crimes. For people pursuing justice, a sense of unity can counterbalance the exposure to tough imagery and information.
Going forward, Ms. Mathieu said, the only way to make content moderation safer is to institute changes such as better pay, more flexible schedules to allow breaks from exposure, and access to mental health professionals who can help employees process what they have seen.
Climate of fear
“This can’t be a climate of fear where people are afraid to ask for help,” Ms. Mathieu said. “They are really important jobs, but people need to feel that they are safe in expressing when it’s impacting them so that they’re not worried that they’re actually going to lose their work.”
It would help if content moderators received evidence-based guidance to help process their experiences, Ms. Mathieu added. However, to avoid doing more harm than good, debriefing has to be administered correctly.
For example, a method called “critical incident stress debriefing,” a longstanding approach that research has shown can do more harm than good, is still widely used in law enforcement agencies. The technique requires individuals to talk about their traumatic experience immediately after it happens, which can cause retraumatization.
Instead, Dr. Ng recommended a more self-aware approach called low-impact debriefing. The method involves strategies such as giving fair warning, asking for consent from listeners, and being selective about the details shared.
Employees should also be taught to recognize and report early signs and symptoms so that they can seek help before psychological distress becomes overwhelming, Dr. Ng says.
Plenty of moderators do not develop PTSD, he said, despite their exposure to upsetting imagery. This suggests an important avenue for research – understanding what makes some people resilient, even in the face of graphic and disturbing stressors.
A version of this story originally appeared on Medscape.com.