User:Acroterion/School shooting enthusiasts

Many adolescents become fascinated with violent incidents such as mass shootings, serial killers, and school shootings. This is not an unusual phase of teenage development, but if it is obsessive or single-minded in its focus, it may be cause for intervention by other Wikipedia editors. There have been instances where people may have edited Wikipedia articles on such topics, and have gone on to commit shootings.

This essay is an effort to describe appropriate measures to head off or redirect editors who have shown an inappropriate emphasis on violent crimes, particularly those involving schools.

First of all, the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency contact procedures.

The WMF emergency procedure

Use the WMF emergency contact system for any threats of self-harm or harm to others.

Redirecting fascination with violent incidents

Partly due to the notoriety of violent events in schools, and partly due to the fact that most adolescents are in schools, school shooting events seem to receive an inordinate level of interest from adolescent editors. This typically takes the form of many small edits or tweaks to large numbers of similar events, such as categorization, statistics, weapon details, and minor copyedits. If such a pattern is noted, it may be sufficient to have a gentle word with the editor to encourage them to turn to less morbid topics. This behavior is not necessarily confined to adolescents, but they appear to comprise the great majority of such editors. Editors may have a more generalized emphasis on violent death, such as serial killers, but violent death is a common thread.

Sometimes the behavior of such editors can give an impression of creepiness. Wikipedia doesn't have a well-developed system for dealing with such editors. The public noticeboards are not necessarily a good venue for raising such concerns due to their prominence. A better approach is to contact an active administrator, either via their talkpage, email, or IRC. Editors should be aware that not all administrators use IRC. Such notifications should be concise, with diffs or other specific references to the behavior that causes unease.

More directly actionable behaviors that express violent imagery or intent should be immediately reported to Wikimedia Trust and Safety at the address at the head of this page. It is best to notify an active administrator at the same time, so that any on-wiki cleanup can be done. However, administrators cannot undertake the interactions with law enforcement or other authorities that Trust and Safety staff can initiate and substantiate, not do they have access to the full repertoire of technical tools that WMF staff can use.

Privacy

Most cases will turn out to be be benign, or no more than disturbing. For that reason, the privacy of the subject of concern should be respected as much as possible, the more so because they may be minors. Amateur sleuthing, doxxing, out-of-channel communication, or direct interactions with authorities should be avoided. There are no exceptions to standing Wikipedia policies concerning outing or publishing non-public information on-wiki. The WMF has the means and training to investigate while preserving confidentiality. It is also easier for the WMF to establish bona fides with authorities as a representative of a major Internet entity than it is for individual users. The privacy of people experiencing a genuine crisis or compulsion should be respected, both for the sake of avoiding stigmatization, and to avoid mistaken identity. If you have specific information that may be relevant to the WMF's review that cannot be discussed on-wiki, it may be confidentially conveyed to the WMF.

Red flags

It is difficult to discern any pattern in the edits that real-life assailants have made on Wikipedia that would give clues to their future actions. There is no clear-cut way to distinguish actionable intent from disturbing fantasy. There are a few red flags that should be given particular attention:

• Names Naming individuals in the context of violent imagery is cause for immediate concern, and should be reported to the WMF without delay.
• Locations Specific locations, particularly schools, churches or the like, are similar matters for immediate action.
• Dates Even in the past, dates are concerning, and dates in the future even more so.
• Details Discussion of specific acts or plans

These elements could be in edit summaries, talkpage conversations, article edits, new articles or pages, or in sandboxes. Some editors have built elaborate walled gardens in userspace, attempting to use them as private webhosts for personal content. As with everything else on Wikipedia, there should be no expectation of privacy for any on-wiki edits, in any namespace

Related issues

There has been at least one case in which someone who has edited Wikipedia has been focused on violent ideologies, and later acted on those beliefs.