What is harmful content?
Well, it’s anything online which causes a person distress or harm.
Our focus is on providing advice about all types of harm online and signposting users to the correct services, highlighting to the public a reporting route for non-criminal content. Where the response from industry isn’t what was expected, we can follow this up directly.
Why can we help?
Report Harmful Content is provided by the UK Safer Internet Centre and operated by SWGfL. We use our existing experience of running two successful helplines, The Professionals Online Safety Helpline and The Revenge Porn Helpline to enhance our service. There is no one else that delivers what we do.
What is considered harmful content?
In simple terms, harmful content is anything online which causes a person distress or harm. This encompasses a huge amount of content and can be very subjective depending on who is doing the viewing; what may be harmful to one person might not be considered an issue by someone else.
We studied the community guidelines of several different platforms and concluded that the following areas of content are likely to violate terms
Online Abuse
Bullying or Harassment
Threats
Impersonation
Unwanted Sexual Advances (Not Image Based)
Violent Content
Self-Harm or Suicide Content
Pornographic Content
What else can I find on Report Harmful Content?
We recognise that harmful content online can be part of a bigger problem, and as such have signposted to other services that can help including the IWF and ACT.
There's also ACT Early which encourages people to report concerns in confidence about individuals who they feel are vulnerable to being radicalised.
We also provide the police with information about the various reporting mechanisms available to them as law enforcers. Our work with industry continues and you’ll also find links to the most up to date transparency reports for the most commonly used social networking platforms along with links to the safety centres of other social networking platforms on the site.
Latest Report Harmful Content News
Report Harmful Content Sees 31% Rise in Reports Over 2023
28th March 2024
SWGfL Calls for Better Protections Within Regulations of the Online Safety Act
8th March 2024
Report Harmful Content Sees Concerning Rise in Animal Abuse Content
26th February 2024
Catch up with Safer Internet Day at Anfield Stadium!
9th February 2024