There Should Be Trigger Warnings

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there should be a trigger warning section on moves and shows for example a trigger warning would be as simple as saying: trigger warning; mention of suicide and visual of self mutilation. as someone suffering from depression and self harm something like this could ruin the entire week for me as it could trigger negative habits, thoughts or feelings and many times over a movie will look like its about something else like learning who you are in this world and then turns ou tot be largely about mental health
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Sierra Shein

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  • frusterated

Posted 6 years ago

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6 years ago
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LuvsToResearch, Champion

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I understand the usefulness of such a suggestion and will add my "me too". Parent's Guide might be helpful in the interim.
6 years ago
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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I also understand the usefulness of this suggestion, but it will take some considered thought to make such a feature viable. There are many possible triggers both physical and psychological.

I avoid films that use a shaky camera, such as the Blair Witch Project, since I have a problem with vertigo. In the interim, notations of triggers in the Parent's Guide and key words indicating triggers.
6 years ago
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Vincent, Champion

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I think the parents guide is going to be the only place you will find information like this. Since IMDB does not update those guides, it's already up to users to share information with each other about potential content which may be upsetting

Forcing users to place notification about say "suicide" in multiple locations seems redundant as its something that should already get noted in the parents guide.  It's already hard enough to get people to fill in some of the parents guides properly
2015-01-11T04:14:07+00:00
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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Vincent,

The parent's guide is probably the best place to include such warnings.

As you point out, some of the guides have incomplete and misleading information. I've also encountered a few cases of outright vandalism.

There is also the irony that the people who would benefit from such information the most are likely to be the most qualified to make the assessment that the information would be a trigger.
5 years ago
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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Coincidentally this article just appeared in my Google alerts.
Demand for ‘trigger warnings’ at University of Minnesota meets opposition
by Anthony Gockowski - University of St Thomas on January 12, 2015
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/20786/

The gist of the article is that what constitutes a trigger warning may be very difficult to define. Since  there are many potential triggers, it be impractical to include comprehensive trigger information.
5 years ago
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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I spoke with a friend who works as a coordinator for a crisis hotline. She told me that it would be a good idea for IMDb to indicate when films had triggers for specific disorders. The triggers she encounters the most are in descending order:

  • Sexual abuse / pedophilia / domestic violence
  • Post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) from soldiers returning from combat
  • Eating disorders (anorexia, bolemia and binge-eating disorder)
  • Cutting / self-mutilation

She said that media showing scenes related to these kinds of events can be traumatic, even when it is incidental.  Ideally films with triggers should be flagged for users with the above conditions. However, having key words for these triggers and information in the Parent’s Guide may be sufficient.

After thinking about this further, one way to mechanize this is to set the appropriate trigger key words for films and to provide additional information in the Parent’s Guide. In addition a new feature could be implemented that would allow users with IMDb accounts to select key words they would like to avoid and conversely to select key words they would like to see. When a user goes to the main page of a film or television production, they would see a red flag indicating that there are key words associated with the title which they are trying to avoid.  Likewise, they would see a green flag if there are key word associated with the title which they would like to see. If such a feature were to be properly implemented, it could be useful to a broader portion of the IMDb user community, rather than just those affected by triggers.
4 years ago
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Rob Campbell

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I agree that IMDB should post trigger warnings maybe edited by the parental warnings community.  I hate to read through all the parental guides to see if there might be a trigger scene
2016-02-20T06:06:18+00:00
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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Hi Rob,

Since the original thread was posted there have been further discussions of various kinds of triggers: Triggers related to traumatic events and triggers that could cause physical problems such as seizures.

The Parental Guide provides a context. However it is difficult to search. Plot key words provide a means to quickly search for films that have content that may be difficult for certain people.

Examples:
http://www.imdb.com/search/keyword?keywords=pedophilia
http://www.imdb.com/search/keyword?keywords=abuse
http://www.imdb.com/search/keyword?keywords=shaky-cam

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