Internet moderitis: New disease in mental health

There is a new profession in the internet era, the so called Internet content reviewer. They check all the submissions and uploads on huge social networking sites, review tens of thousands of pictures and make sure only legal content is being uploaded to these communities. It seems a new disease is starting to spread: moderitis. Here is a New York Times piece on the topic:

Ricky Bess spends eight hours a day in front of a computer near Orlando, Fla., viewing some of the worst depravities harbored on the Internet. He has seen photographs of graphic gang killings, animal abuse and twisted forms of pornography. One recent sighting was a photo of two teenage boys gleefully pointing guns at another boy, who is crying.

YouTube, a division of Google, is an exception. If a user indicates a video is inappropriate, software scans the image looking for warning signs of clips that are breaking the site’s rules or the law. Flagged videos are then sent for manual review by YouTube-employed content moderators who, because of the nature of the work, are given only yearlong contracts and access to counseling services, according to Victoria Grand, a YouTube spokeswoman.

Photo: Stephen Mally for The New York Times