At Wattpad, community safety is our highest priority. Our teams are committed to ensuring the platform is a safe space for creators and users to express themselves and their creativity.
Content moderation and the content guidelines that dictate what can be shared on the platform are some of the most important ways we keep Wattpad safe. This week, our teams deployed new moderation tools that will help us identify content violations faster and at a larger scale than was possible before. Our new moderation process will make Wattpad safer for everyone, while also making it easier and faster for our teams--who work day in and day out to keep the platform safe--to identify and remove Content violations. Users can rest assured that only Content violations will be actioned by our teams, and content not prohibited by our Content Guidelines will remain on the platform.
Our teams are in the process of removing confirmed content violations from the platform, and also reviewing stories that have been flagged for potential violations. Writers who believe their stories have been removed in error can appeal the decision by submitting a request via our Help Center. If a story is in review, it will not appear in search or story rankings until our team completes its investigation. We also encourage writers to regularly review our Content Guidelines to ensure their stories do not contain violations.
Additionally, as part of our work to keep the Wattpad community safe, we regularly review and update our Content Guidelines, ensuring writers can easily access information about what is and isn't acceptable on the platform.
On April 15th, 2024, we will update our Content Guidelines by raising the age of consent in stories to 18+. This change will clarify how Teen Fic and YA writers should approach romance storylines, and better reflect the diverse cultural standards and expectations of our global reading and writing community.
With this change, stories will need to ensure they account for the following criteria:
- Content may still include non-sexual elements of a romantic relationship between people under 18, such as kissing and holding hands.
- Content can still allude to sexual acts having occurred between two characters under the age of 18 as long as it is NOT described in any way.
- Content depicting sexual acts involving anyone under 18 is prohibited.
Before the new guidelines go into effect, please take this opportunity to review any Teen Fic or YA stories you have written to ensure they will comply with the upcoming changes. Once the new guidelines take effect, stories featuring violations will be removed from the platform.
Links & Resources:
- Content Guidelines: If ever in doubt when writing or editing your story, you can easily access our Content Guidelines
- Wattpad Safety Portal: A dedicated educational resource for younger users and parents with information about staying safe online
- Report Content: As always, we encourage users to report concerning content for our team to review
Thank you for helping us ensure Wattpad is a safe space for everyone.
Warmly,
Wattpad HQ
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