Content Moderator Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a content moderator. You can use our job description template in this article to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a content moderator.
Who is a Content Moderator?
A Content Moderator maintains the security and operation of online platforms that rely on user-generated material. To assess if the data meets the established rules and guidelines for website security, they must examine enormous volumes of textual, visual, and aural data. For their user base, content moderators give real-time safety. They concentrate on blocking people from seeing offensive and hazardous information.
A content moderator also protects people from exposure to a wide range of disturbing and illegal content, including terrorism and extremism, violence, crimes, sexual exploitation, drug abuse, spam, scam, trolling, and other harmful and offensive content. The role of a content moderator has several facets. While deleting postings could make up a sizable chunk of it, there are several more intricate activities involved.
Content moderators use focused technologies to filter out improper, offensive, unlawful, or dangerous text, photos, video, and audio. Then they decide whether certain material or user accounts need to be removed because they contravene platform policies or are spam, a scam, or trolling. Additionally, content moderators can respond to user queries and remarks on blogs run by businesses, in forums, and on social media posts. They can also defend against offensive material and abuse on social networking websites.
Content moderators contribute to upholding moral standards and preserving the legal compliance of online companies and communities by accomplishing all of this. Their prompt and appropriate responses are crucial for preserving the internet platforms’ reputation.
In general, the role of the content moderator is to support the growth of robust, active communities for digital companies, protecting vulnerable users and maintaining the original intent of platforms.
Content Moderator Job Description
Below are the content moderator job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of the Content Moderator include the following:
- Maintain a thorough understanding of the client’s policy verticals, including the compliance rules
- Ensure that escalated content and user-reported comply with client policy standards and meet or surpass challenging core work goals.
- Identify regional and local patterns, and watch out for chronic offenders in the online community.
- Respond to new requests and initiatives when necessary.
- Report and remove offensive, inflammatory, aggressive, spammy, or improper content.
- Respond to user questions or grievances concerning regulated content.
- Keep up with the most recent developments and best practices in content control.
- Aid in creating and implementing moderation guidelines
- Utilize your discretion when making judgments in a hectic setting.
- Understand and implement challenging content moderation guidelines.
- Give suggestions to other content producers so they may improve their entries.
- Report any content that could need more examination to the manager or supervisor.
- Work with multidisciplinary teams to address problems and enhance content moderation procedures.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in journalism, English (or other languages relevant to the organization), communications, or a closely related discipline
- Years of experience in editing or writing roles
- Excellent research skills
- Ability to achieve deadlines by working individually and in a team
- Familiarity with social media sites and the tools used for content moderation
Essential Skills
Here are the skills you require to excel in your role as a content moderator:
- Communication
- Empathy
- Alertness
- Flexibility
- Integrity
- Linguistic Proficiency
- Moral Compass
- Ability to Recognize Peculiar Contents
- Stress Tolerance
- Interpersonal
- Content Screening
- Patience
- Project Management
Communication
Even if this ability falls under interpersonal, it is still distinct from being social and being able to articulate your position coherently on a certain topic. Content moderators must be able to explain in their guidelines why certain content will be prohibited and provide an explanation for why they were banned.
Empathy
Since everyone is going through something, having this skill is crucial while regulating material. Sometimes, individuals publish their feelings or opinions without considering if doing so will be helpful to others. Chat post moderators must be able to put aside their prejudices while working and attempt to understand how the poster feels. When there is a dispute in the comment area, they are not to offend, but rather to act professionally and impartially since they know all sides and would concentrate on resolving the conflict.
Alertness
Being vigilant is necessary since posts need to be sorted and filtered as they arrive quickly. Content moderators are not allowed to be lazy, because if users make a mistake when they confirm their responses to risky postings, they risk sharing posts that might include malware and compromise the database or the security of the online or social media community they are a part of.
Flexibility
Content moderators must be adaptable in their job because their workload or schedule may change at any time. When moderating online interactions, they must also have the flexibility to adjust to various events and content. For instance, the content moderator may need to alter their usual approach to moderating that topic if a user is abusive.
Integrity
Most corporations or businesses have explicit terms of service that outline what constitutes unacceptable conduct on their online forums or social media platforms. Content moderators refer to these words when determining what material or user behavior is appropriate. They frequently need to apply the laws impartially, without showing any preference for anyone.
Integrity enables them to uphold the company’s values and principles and to modify or eliminate workflow procedures that might not align with the organization’s long-term objectives and vision. Content moderators may portray themselves as dependable, honest professionals who respect their work by upholding high standards and a strong work ethic.
Linguistic Proficiency
Content moderators work with companies on more than simply evaluating photos and videos. They often check the text-based information in many languages that might impact their clients’ purchasing decisions using their multilingual experience. For instance, customers frequently check reviews and client testimonials before purchasing from an e-commerce site. Consumer remarks may impact a brand’s reputation. Because of this, multinational corporations with several locations frequently seek multilingual content moderators that can contribute to the efficient moderation of content in various languages that enhances the company’s online reputation.
Moral Compass
The existence of a strong moral compass is one of the essential characteristics that frequently defines a content moderator. Content moderators are the front line in the fight against explicit topics inappropriate for the brand’s intended demographic. When choosing how to separate constructive from harmful user material and promptly delete those that are offensive or undesirable, they are well-knowledgeable.
Ability to Recognize Peculiar Contents
Any social networking site, online community, or messaging service you use to share your posts will always have a sorted subject. Most frequently, some people would discuss explicit and outright risky material with the community. According to the level of strangeness it exhibits, content moderators must be able to determine if a message or video is appropriate for the target audience.
Stress Tolerance
The procedure for content moderation puts the facilitators to the test every day. Content moderators are daily exposed to a wide range of odd and obscene posts and videos; the sheer volume of user content they must deal with wears them out emotionally and intellectually. The pressure to classify every piece of created content may be overwhelming and detrimental to their health. For this reason, the position requires a high level of stress tolerance.
Interpersonal
This skill talks about the ability to converse with people and effectively convey the topic. Moderators’ responsibilities extend beyond just vetting the data and material that users provide. Another one of their duties is to speak out and start conversations in their group. In chats, for instance, moderators frequently have to intervene and explain why the content was flagged as inappropriate or harmful without infuriating the individual further.
Content Screening
If content moderators have a sufficient understanding of the numerous channels that businesses and consumers utilize, content screening may be an easy process for them. By tailoring the whole process, these moderators may assist users and brands have a better overall experience by being aware of the content requirements for each forum. Additionally, they may utilize this information to provide a safer and more useful brand interface and to encourage meaningful user engagement among end-users.
Patience
Being patient can assist content moderators to perform their daily tasks without becoming anxious about various content concerns because moderating material can be time-consuming. By giving pertinent facts, patience can ensure that these experts make correct forecasts and execute content strategies. Additionally, it can assist them in avoiding unwanted distractions that can impede their productivity and better business judgments.
Project Management
Because they enable you to coordinate several individuals’ efforts and ensure that everyone is working toward the same objective, project management skills are crucial for content moderators. Your responsibility as a content moderator is to examine incoming social media communications and determine whether they violate corporate regulations. Additionally, you must delegate these messages to other workers so they may check them and take appropriate action. Strong project management abilities allow you to monitor incoming communications and guarantee they are examined.
How to Become a Content Moderator
Below are the steps to take to become a Content Moderator:
Step One: Obtain a Bachelor’s Degree
Most businesses need at least a bachelor’s degree from prospective content moderators, however, you can also meet this criterion by gaining relevant experience monitoring or working with digital material. For those seeking to enter this line of work, a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as digital marketing, is most advantageous since it demonstrates to potential employers that you have a working knowledge of social media and internet content. Having a degree will increase your career prospects as a content moderator and might help you network with people who can help you land your first position in this industry.
Step Two: Become Familiar with Digital Content
Before pursuing a career in social media content moderation, it is vital to have experience with the particular platform for which you want to work, whether you obtain a bachelor’s degree or work in a related industry. Look for part-time or internship positions using social media platforms where you may learn about local, state, and federal content laws. This may help you gain a better understanding of how to discriminate between useful and harmful information as well as a better understanding of how the communities on social media platforms operate.
Step Three: Go Through On-the-job Training
Most businesses will want you to complete corporate training after you land a job before you can join them on a full-time basis, however they may do so while you work. The duration of the training session is determined by the policies of the organization, however, you frequently work with knowledgeable content moderators throughout this time to learn more about the details of your new position and the platform you are supporting. You can learn how this career may influence you while working during the training phase and discuss any concerns with your new boss while doing so.
Where to Work as a Content Moderator
Content moderators can work for different sectors and organizations’ digital platforms.
Although some may work part-time, others are employed full-time. To keep up with the 24/7 nature of the internet, they could work on the weekends and nights. During busy times, they could put in extra hours. Since moderators must decide quickly whether the information is suitable or contravenes the site’s terms of service, the work may be demanding. Additionally, they must be capable of handling upsetting pictures and videos.
Content Moderator Salary Scale
In the United States, the salary range for a Content Moderator position is $33,773 to $47,182. The average amount is $39,624.
The average yearly wage for a content moderator is £25,322 in the United Kingdom.
In Canada, the average annual pay for a content moderator is CA$ 35,075.
The estimated annual salary for a Content Moderator in Germany is €32,200, with an average pay of €29,115. With an average monthly income of €1,977, the anticipated total compensation for a content moderator in Germany is €3,664 per month.
In Dublin, Ireland, the expected yearly income for a content moderator is €30,356, with an average pay of €28,255.
In Nigeria, a Content Moderator makes an average monthly income of ₦100,000. In Nigeria, a content moderator earns an average salary of ₦1,210,000 annually.
Salary ranges can vary significantly based on various crucial aspects, including education, credentials, skills, and the length of time working in a given field.