Typology of content warnings and trigger warnings: Systematic review

Abstract

Content and trigger warnings give information about the content of material prior to receiving it. Different typologies of content warnings have emerged across multiple sectors, including health, social media, education and entertainment. Benefits arising from their use are contested, with recent empirical evidence from educational sectors suggesting they may raise anxiety and reinforce the centrality of trauma experience to identity, whilst benefits relate to increased individual agency in making informed decisions about engaging with content. Research is hampered by the absence of a shared inter-sectoral typology of warnings. The aims of this systematic review are to develop a typology of content warnings and to identify the contexts in which content warnings are used. The review was pre-registered (ID: CRD42020197687, URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020197687) and used five sources: electronic databases covering multiple sectors (n = 19); table of contents from multi-sectoral journals (n = 5), traditional and social media websites (n = 53 spanning 36 countries); forward and backward citation tracking; and expert consultation (n = 15). In total, 6,254 documents were reviewed for eligibility and 136 documents from 32 countries were included. These were synthesised to develop the Narrative Experiences Online (NEON) content warning typology, which comprises 14 domains: Violence, Sex, Stigma, Disturbing content, Language, Risky behaviours, Mental health, Death, Parental guidance, Crime, Abuse, Socio-political, Flashing lights and Objects. Ten sectors were identified: Education, Audio-visual industries, Games and Apps, Media studies, Social sciences, Comic books, Social media, Music, Mental health, and Science and Technology. Presentation formats (n = 15) comprised: education materials, film, games, websites, television, books, social media, verbally, print media, apps, radio, music, research, DVD/video and policy document. The NEON content warning typology provides a framework for consistent warning use and specification of key contextual information (sector, presentation format, target audience) in future content warning research, allowing personalisation of content warnings and investigation of global sociopolitical trends over time.

Elephant ‘selfies’: Evaluating the effectiveness of Instagram’s warning of the potential negative impacts of photo opportunities with wild animals

“…Although there is a body of research on ‘trigger warnings’ or ‘content warnings’ (e.g. [ 69 – 71 ]), these types of warnings are designed to warn viewers of potentially distressing content (i.e. to protect the viewer themselves), a fundamentally different objective to the selfie alert that aims to protect the animal in the image, other wild animals in a similar situation, and populations of the species shown.…”

Exploratory Thematic Analysis of Crowdsourced Photosensitivity Warnings

“…Stratta et al investigated the feasibility of delivering automated content warnings inferred from sentiment and keyword analysis using a web browser extension [17]. Charles et al contributed a systematic review and typology of content warnings and trigger warnings across multiple sectors, including health, social media, education, and entertainment [9]. Their taxonomy includes a category for warnings about fashing lights, but the systematic review does not provide any in-depth analysis beyond identifying its existence as a distinct subcategory of content warnings.…”

Trigger warnings as tools for learning—theorising an evolving cultural concept

“…A systematic review exploring a typology of warnings acknowledges their inconsistent application and highlights that frameworks in different sectors have evolved organically and often in disciplinary, legal, and geographical silos. 2 Sectors and disciplines assert individual assumptions and priorities. Researchers note that in the arts sector, provocation arising from works is valued and intended, and here, warnings support optionality.…”

“…3 'Content warnings' are noted to characterise the nature of sensitive content. 2,4 This term has confusingly been used as both an umbrella term, with trigger warning being considered a sub-type of content warning but also as an evolutionary term for trigger warnings themselves due to concerns about acceptability of such a term. It is acknowledged that warnings are not a static entity, but instead a 'shared cultural concept that can meaningfully shift over time' 6 and whose use may have amassed additional socially or culturally contextualised effects, distinct from their original clinical rationale.…”

“…These advisories are considered to have originated online, in feminist blogs, and were particularly associated with sexual trauma before being applied more widely, both in relation to content‐type and media form 3 . ‘Content warnings’ are noted to characterise the nature of sensitive content 2,4 . This term has confusingly been used as both an umbrella term, with trigger warning being considered a sub‐type of content warning but also as an evolutionary term for trigger warnings themselves due to concerns about acceptability of such a term.…”