WiredTrust Moderators are Different
At WiredTrust, we understand that the lure of inexpensive offshore moderators is a strong one. Companies in India, the Philippines, and other third-world countries offer moderation services for low hourly rates and promise English fluency. While there are instances where offshore services are adequate, because the skill set and anticipated risks are lower, when real risk management is involved their weaknesses are apparent. And our clients, among the leading household online and offline trusted brands, agree.
WiredTrust recognizes that your moderators are the first line of defense of your brand. They must know how to spot the less apparent risks and dig a little further to ensure quality moderation. They must be vetted, trained, certified, on premises, using certified equipment with kill technologies, keystroke logging and oversight tools to allow for quality control by escalators and on site supervisors, security practices and technologies and confidentiality and data management policies that are enforced. They must also have immediate access to escalation staff, supervisors and the company's risk managers (when necessary). And for North American networks/users, must be familiar with colloquialisms, cultural norms and acceptable standards of behavior for North America.
Consider the following scenarios:
A user posts an image of two friends with a flag in the background. Will your moderator detect that the flag has a swastika on it? Will they understand its meaning in the United States or will they ignore it as a sign of good luck? What if the flag was of a striped rainbow of colors? Would every offshore moderator connect it with the gay, lesbian, bi and trans-sexual movement and be extra vigilant in detecting any threats made toward this user in the same posting?
A user violates the terms of service. Is this a pattern of abusive behavior? What is the level of abuse and what disciplinary process is appropriate? Is this unusual behavior that may point to an account takeover or impersonator?
WiredTrust's moderators are not just trained to separate good from potentially bad. They are highly educated (most college graduates), certified in the client's standards as well as Socially Safe best practice standards and COPPA and high-risk content legal compliance. They are trained to apply a higher level of judgment and how to address the unexpected. They are premium quality and can address Tier 1-3 moderation/escalation and if necessary, law enforcement liaison needs.
Many companies experienced in deploying offshore moderation banks understand the risk of expecting more from the Tier 1 moderators than they can deliver. That's why many deploy costly inhouse staff to handle escalations, quality assurance and other high-end risk-management roles. WiredTrust is designed to allow clients to move all their moderation, escalation and risk-management services to one place, avoiding the disconnect, wasted time and high cost of double teams. Arrangements can even be made to have WiredTrust's legal team address law enforcement liaison needs and exigent cases, as well as cases of sexual exploitation. And, Canada's privacy and data protection laws are clear, non-invasive and North-American-friendly.
When you compare WiredTrust's Socially Safe Certified moderators with run of the mill moderators, especially those off-shore, you will find that while we may cost more, we are more than worth it.
- Native English speakers: WiredTrust's moderators are all resident and from North America (US and Canadian) and are native English speakers for English moderation. (For non-English moderation, WiredTrust only hires moderators who speak the language being moderated natively, although resident in North America. For example, our Spanish-speakers are certified as South and Central American native speakers, or Castilian -native speakers from Spain. They can also be selected based on special expertise, ages, genders and experience for special network needs.)
- Familiarity with North American culture: WiredTrust's moderators are familiar with North American culture and mannerisms because they are resident there. Although people around the world speak English, unless they are enmeshed in North American culture, they will not be able to effectively moderate content. Simple phrases made by a user such as "I would kill for a drink" can be lost on a moderator who is not familiar with the expression.
- Advanced training and expertise: WiredTrust's moderators are experienced, trained, and certified to WiredTrust's best practice standards and are recruited and vetted carefully. Our moderators also have the benefit of accessing WiredTrust's expertise and knowledge of the most current legal and Internet safety developments. Moderators also undergo continuing training and recertification to match WiredTrust's improvements to its best practice standards. No one else in the industry offers this level of training or vetting of moderators and no one else requires retraining and certification on an ongoing basis.
- Supervision: Moderators are supervised at all times. Moderators work in small groups and typically have a 1:5 escalator/supervisor to moderator ratio. In addition, all communications and activities are tracked using high level monitoring technology, logs of which are reviewed by senior managers at WiredTrust.
- The right people for the job: WiredTrust has the capability of selecting moderators that meet the specific demographic needs of our clients, such as if they prefer more female moderators or younger moderators or others trained in addressing high-risk situations or more vulnerable users.
- The highest standards: WiredTrust moderators are held to standards higher than those we require of the industry in certifying their practices for the Socially Safe Best Practices Seal.
- Insurance: WiredTrust is adequately insured, all moderators and supervisors are employees of either WiredTrust US or WiredTrust Canada, receive all benefits required by law, receive support for stress-management, have senior escalation and supervisory staff available to them at all times.
- Privacy and data security: WiredTrust follows legally compliant privacy and security practices. Legal professionals employed by WiredTrust are on call at all times should an emergency arise that requires our law enforcement or legal expertise. We have a privacy officer and a Chief Technology Officer on staff as well.
- Legal Issues and Exigent Circumstances: When legal issues arise (such as child pornography) or exigent circumstances (such as a suicide threat), WiredTrust's legal team is on call to ensure proper resolution. The high level internal escalation structure is designed to address issues quickly rather than cause delay by escalating to a client and having to wait for further instructions.
- Contracts and Liability: Moderators sign employment contracts with WiredTrust including comprehensive non-disclosure, non-circumvention and non-compete agreements. You have no liability for layoffs, terminations, or our employees. All moderators are employees of WiredTrust, which bears legal responsibility as an employer, shielding clients from any liability therefor. They work exclusively for WiredTrust and do not offer moderation services for other providers after-hours or on the side, as is the case with many other providers.
- Trust: Moderators are personally known to Parry Aftab and WiredTrust and are thoroughly vetted through face-to-face interviews, reference checks and extensive formal governmental background checks.
- Surplus Capability: Moderators are typically trained for, and deployed on behalf of, specific clients. But in the event traffic is higher than expected, or special events require a short-term increase in moderation needs, additional moderators are trained in the client's processes, standards and needs and can be added when needed on an on-call basis, without risking the quality of moderation.
- Multi-Asset Expertise: WiredTrust's moderators are trained to moderate all assets, from simple images, videos, profile changes and formation, content and textual reviews and comments, as well as other forms of UGC.
- Security and Equipment: Moderators use company-owned equipment, protected by firewalls, equipped with "kill" technologies, and connected to WiredTrust's secure servers. All computers are maintained with up to date anti-virus and anti-malware software and system updates by experienced inhouse IT staff.
- Risk-Management: Risk-management is a moving target. New risks are identified when new technologies are adopted. Users of all ages break the rules intentionally and accidentally. Some users are more vulnerable than others and laws and policies are a moving target. Because WiredTrust provides high-end risk-management consulting services to the digital industry from Facebook on down, we are especially attuned to spotting potential risks and efficiencies. We pass those along to our clients when we encounter them.
Problems Identified by our Clients with other Moderation Companies:
- No overseas data sharing: WiredTrust moderators are all in North America and so no data is shared overseas.
- Hidden laws and unfamiliar customs: Local labor laws in some countries require severance pay equal to one month pay for every year of employment. Pornographic and child exploitation consent may violate special laws in those countries without the safe harbors available in North America.
- Exchange rates: All WiredTrust fees are in US Dollars. Some offshore companies include clauses allowing them to renegotiate the fee if the exchange rate with their currency fluctuates beyond a certain percentage.
- Unpredictable Pricing: Some moderation companies charge extra fees for moderators who are more proficient with spelling and grammar or have additional education and experience.
- Unpredictable situations: Using a North American company decreases your chances of downtime due to political unrest, labor strikes, and outages due to natural disasters which take longer to recover from in Middle Eastern, Pacific Rim, and Asian countries.
- Data Security: While Asian and Middle Eastern countries promise data security, their communication regulatory schemes, network weaknesses and government filter policies may gut those promises.
What Our Clients are “Saying”
"WiredTrust is one of the most important leaders in the internet safety industry. We are proud to partner with them to help to educate kids and parents about this important topic."
- Dave Finnegan, Chief Information Bear
Build-a-Bear Workshop Inc.
Our Clients
WiredTrust represents the leading social networking, gaming, and family sites on the Internet as well as many sites designed especially for kids. Entertainment and digital media companies come to us when they encounter problems because they know we see solutions and work closely with them to create the safest sites possible.