Content Moderator Mental Health, Secondary Trauma, and Well-being: A Cross-Sectional Study

Content moderators (CMs) analyze and remove offensive or harmful user generated content that has been uploaded to the internet. Jobs which involve exposure to other people's suffering are associated with raised rates of secondary traumatic stress and mental health problems. However, research establishing psychological baseline symptoms in CMs is lacking. This study used an online survey to explore rates of psychological distress, secondary trauma, and well-being in a sample of CMs. Regression analysis explored how various features of the work affected mental health. There was a dose-response effect between frequency of exposure to distressing content and psychological distress and secondary trauma, but not well-being. The results suggested supportive colleagues and feedback about the importance of their role ameliorated this relationship. Implications for CM working conditions are discussed.