Child protection

Currently, the terms of use define basic restrictions on behavior on the projects, and some individual wikis have local policies or drafts addressing child protection. The text discussed here has been drawn primarily from these sources.

The Wikimedia terms of use lists the following activities as inappropriate uses of the sites, and grounds for being blocked:

Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography or child sexual abuse material, or encouraging, grooming, or advocating for others to create or share such material;

Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority where you are if higher than 18 years, for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.

Editors who attempt to use Wikimedia projects to pursue these activities will be globally blocked/locked from all projects.

Reporting concerns

Reports of editors engaged in such conduct should be made to the WMF at: legal-reportswikimedia.org

Email reports are preferred, as public comments suggesting a contributor is engaging in such conduct may be considered libel, or may involve unacceptable privacy issues for the editor or for a minor. Such comments can be removed by any editor, and may be deleted.

Global policy

Wikimedia maintains a global policy for child exploitation material. The office action page also described Foundation measures towards such material.

Local policies

Some wikis have local policies about this.

Wikipedia: policies exist on the Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, Farsi, Indonesian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese wikis.

Commons: a proposed policy exists on Commons.

Meta-Wiki: a policy exists on Meta-Wiki.

They all share text that says roughly:

Editors who attempt to use Wikipedia to pursue or facilitate inappropriate adult–child relationships, who advocate inappropriate adult–child relationships (e.g. by expressing the view that inappropriate relationships are not harmful to children), or who identify themselves as pedophiles, will be blocked indefinitely.

Some go no further, others have additional details.

Advice for young editors

If you are a younger editor and feel that another person on any Wikimedia project is behaving in a way that you feel threatens your personal safety, or causes you concerns in any way whatsoever, please tell a responsible adult. We recommend that you or the responsible adult should contact the Wikimedia Foundation by email at legal-reportswikimediaorg. If you think that your personal safety is at risk, please contact your local law enforcement authorities or the public prosecution service. Do not continue to communicate with the other person – it is best to ignore them completely. Never give out personal identity information such as your address or phone number to anyone online, including people who say they are trying to help you. When in doubt about whether certain information is too personal to share, do not give it out.

Reporting concerns

Global policy

Local policies

Advice for young editors

See also