What can we help with?
Report Harmful Content is a national reporting centre that has been designed to assist everyone in reporting harmful content online.
Main Functions
Advice
Empowering anyone who has come across harmful content online to report it by providing up to date information on community standards and direct links to the correct reporting facilities across multiple platforms.
Reporting
Providing further support to users over the age of 13 who have already submitted a report to industry and would like outcomes reviewed. Report Harmful Content will check submitted reports and industry responses against platform-specific reporting procedures and community standards in order to provide users with further advice on actions they can take.
The report button will guide you through the reporting process and offer appropriate advice. We aim to respond to your enquiry within 72 hours however it may take longer to fully investigate and resolve the incident. Our practitioners may use pseudonyms in correspondence to protect their safety. If we can’t help resolve the matter, wherever possible we will explain why it is not possible to seek mediation (for example if the matter doesn’t breach a site's terms) and will put you in touch with people who can provide wraparound support.
Sometimes the online harmful behaviour is only a part of a broader issue (for example stalking or domestic abuse) so we have a comprehensive guide to these support services as well.
How do you define 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 the viewer; what may be harmful to one person might not be considered an issue by someone else.
What type of harmful content reports can you review and offer further advice about?
We can review reports made about the following eight types of online harm:
- Online Abuse
- Bullying or Harassment
- Threats
- Impersonation
- Unwanted Sexual Advances (Not Image Based)
- Violent Content
- Self-Harm or Suicide Content
- Pornographic Content
Why these eight?
We studied the community guidelines of several different platforms and these areas of content are likely to violate terms. Also, based on our previous experience running two helplines, The Professionals Online Safety Helpline and The Revenge Porn Helpline, we know we can offer further specialist advice and support in these areas.
You might wonder why we don’t offer reporting support for other types of online harm; this is because there are other routes to resolution where other categories of harmful content are concerned. There are dedicated, specialist services that exist already – for example, Action Counters Terrorism. Read the Advice section of our website for more information on these harms and the places you can find support.
Are there other resources 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.
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 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.
