Posting explicit descriptions of violence

[Heather]

Hey, everyone.

We have recently had an uptick in users posting unnecessary and explicit descriptions of violence of some kind, namely:
• explicit descriptions of self-harm or harm to others they are thinking about
• fantasy or other descriptions of "wanted" sexual violence
• violence as part of intrusive thoughts, depression or anxiety

These descriptions are highly activating for some members of our community, particularly those of us who have lived experiences of violence. They can make this feel like an emotionally precarious or unsafe place, and for some of us, that's particularly problematic because we work here, and so can't just not be here.

These kinds of posts are outside the guidelines all users have agreed to when registering here, and I have recently made a few small edits to them to make it as clear as possible that posting these things isn't okay here. Please review those here: https://www.scarleteen.com/user_guideli ... acy_policy and please act with care towards the community and do not post these kinds of descriptions here.

Moving forward, if and when anyone does, those descriptions will be edited out, and any users who repeat this behavior may lose the privilege of using the message boards and other direct services.

Thank you.

* This is not about things like if and when a survivor of violence is giving details to find out about possible injury, or is trying to process what has happened to them or someone else. There are some contexts in which is is appropriate to describe violence, though we ask that if and when you do that, you please do not put it in the title of a post and that you also use a content note in the body of any post with violence, at the top of that post.