Shared Vocabulary: Trigger/Trauma/Content Warnings

The community shared vocabulary is a collaboratively maintained set of terms and definitions used by moderators and administrators to ensure clarity, fairness, and consistency in community governance across diverse platforms.

This list provides a non-exhaustive set of content warning terms that can be used to label or self-label content which may evoke distress, trauma responses, or discomfort for viewers or community members.

Warning labels are used to offer individuals, particularly those with lived experience of trauma or marginalisation, the opportunity to engage with content on their own terms. Whether applied by moderators, content creators, or labelling services, these warnings support informed consent and align with trauma-informed and rights-respecting community practices.

The presence of a content warning is not a judgement on the value of the material but a recognition of the diverse needs within a community, helping to uphold dignity, accessibility, and respect in online interactions.

This list could be used as a typeahead for warning vocabularies, an aid for self-labelling, or as guidance on what to suggest content warnings for.

While content warnings are valuable tools for protecting community wellbeing, individuals sharing their own lived experiences – especially in the context of support, disclosure, or testimony – should not be expected or required to label their narratives with warnings. Requiring content warnings in these cases can unintentionally silence marginalised voices, place undue emotional labour on survivors, and undermine the authenticity and urgency of personal storytelling.

Ableism
Abortion
Acephobia
Addiction
Ageism
Alcohol
Alcoholism
Amputation
Animal abuse
Animal death
Antisemitism
Anxiety
Assault
Bestiality
Blood
Bones
Bulimia
Bullying
Cancer
Child abuse
Child death
Cults
Death
Decapitation
Depression
Divorce
Domestic violence
Drugs
Eating disorder
Emesis
Famine
Fatphobia
Funeral
Genocide
Gore
Graphic medical content
Gun violence
Hallucinations
Harry Potter references
Hate crimes
Hate speech
Homomisia
Homophobia
Hospitalisation
Incest
Infertility
Injury
Kidnapping
Lesbiphobia
Medical trauma
Mental health
Mental illness
Military combat
Miscarriage
Misgendering
Misogyny
Molestation
Murder
Needles
Occult
Pedophilia
PTSD
Queerphobia
Racism
Rape
Religion
Self-harm
Sexism
Sexual abuse
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Skeletons
Snakes
Spiders
Stalking
Starvation
Suicide
Surgery
Terminal illness
Terrorism
Torture
Transmisia
Transphobia
Violence
War
Withdrawal

IFTAS
IFTAS
@about.iftas.org@about.iftas.org

Nonprofit trust and safety support for volunteer social web content moderators

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IFTAS is a non-profit organisation committed to advocating for independent, sovereign technology, empowering and supporting the people who keep decentralised social platforms safe, fair, and inclusive..