The Hell Known As Internet Screening Services

circletimessquare writes "Do you think your job is bad? Some websites outsource their moderation to firms where every work day, all work day, workers do nothing but sift through depravity after depravity. '"You have 20-year-old kids who get hired to do content review, and who get excited because they think they are going to see adult porn," said Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer at MySpace. "They have no idea that some of the despicable and illegal images they will see can haunt them for the rest of their lives."' Some places only do year-long contracts, and have counseling services and staff psychologists, because of the psychological issues caused by this kind of work. One psychologist 'reached some unsettling conclusions in her interviews with content moderators. She said they were likely to become depressed or angry, have trouble forming relationships and suffer from decreased sexual appetites. Small percentages said they had reacted to unpleasant images by vomiting or crying. "The images interfere with their thinking processes. It messes up the way you react to your partner," Ms. Laperal said. "If you work with garbage, you will get dirty."'"

4chan

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's like getting paid to browse /b/?

/.ers

[TheMeuge]

workers do nothing but sift through depravity after depravity

I thought that was the definition of "browsing the Internet".

Re:solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, they'll filter alright. Just the other way around.

Words of Wisdom:

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

As the great Jello Biafra once said: "Want to see child porn? Join the vice squad."

Re:Goatse Posters

[Anonymous Coward]

Without reading your comment, I got the impression from your subject that you were selling something. Now that, I thought, is truly depraved.

Dirty Jobs episode?

[BigDXLT]

I'd like to see Mike spend a day cleaning up the interwebs!

Re:Dirty Jobs episode?

[natehoy]

"It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it. Whoa-oh-oh-OH-oh."

[[ cut to Mike in front of a web browser, screen not visible ]]

[click]
"Oh, God!"
[click]
"Oh, God!"
[click]
"Oh, God!"
[click]
"Oh, God!"
[click]
"Oh, God!"
[[ commercial break ]]
[[repeat]

Re:Goatse Posters

[Scrameustache]

Hope all you bastards are happy. First time I saw that image, I had nightmares for a month.

And how frequently do you click on random URLs from people you don't know now that you've had that experience?

All. day. long! :'(

Re:20 year old kids ?

[pinkj]

Or get a braille screen and hire blind people.

Re:4chan

[sznupi]

"Words", eh?

I used to be a content moderator

[ILuvRamen]

I used to be a content moderator for ehow.com, a demand media subsidiary. Luckily all I had to do was sort out the bad user articles that weren't up to their quality standard. I came across some oddly disturbing stuff but at least it was only text. I definitely now have it embedded in my mind though that 99% of people can't write an article properly to save their own life and most Americans are degenerate mutant freaks who need to go back to school to learn basic grammar and spelling skills but other than that, I came out of it perfectly sane lol.

Re:solution:

[eln]

The problem is that most 20 year old kids don't really know how sensitive they are to things like this until they're repeatedly exposed to them, by which point much of the damage has already been done. Luckily for me, I was exposed to the Internet and all of the nastiness on it when I was only 13, and I've managed to get by with no ill effects at all except for the occasional extended blackout followed by a dead hooker in my bed. Some more sensitive people might really lose their minds, though.

Re:solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

You haven't really lost your mind until the dead hookers start waking up on you...

Meh

[Bemopolis]

Pics or it didn't happe — OH JESUS MY EYES!

Re:solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

What's /b/ ?

Re:Goatse Posters

[Zerth]

3 guys 1 hammer.
1 girl 1 kitten.

Links?

You're hired

Re:solution:

[horza]

How about:
wget <posted-page> | wc "bump" | echo "Page: <posted-page>\tDepravity level: $1\n" > filter.txt

Phillip.

Re:solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

You know some screwed up surgeons, man. Cautery smoke smells terrible, on par with burned hair.

Re:solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

Normally I'd say "Google is your friend", but friends don't let friends read /b/.