Help / I'd like my account/photo to be reviewed by staff

FAQs you might find helpful (5)

• Where do I set the safety level on my photos?

  You can set a default safety level for photos you upload, on a page in Your Account. Whatever you set here will carry through to any/all upload methods you use.

  To see what your photos are currently set at, go to the Organizr, click "More Options" near the bottom of the page, and filter by safe, moderate, and restricted.

  You can also change whatever default you've set per photo or batch as you upload, and after your content is uploaded. There are batch editing tools available in the Organizr, and on the page where you see one of your photos, there's a "Flag your photo" link under the Additional Information heading where you can also change the safety level.

• My account has been reviewed as safe. What does that mean?

  Having a "safe" account means that you are good at moderating your own content. Awesome!

  If your account is also "NIPSA", you may be one of the people caught up in the transition between the old system of moderation (public, pending, private accounts etc) and the new way (safety level/content type filters). It's fairly likely that if your account is NIPSA, it's because your account was NIPSA pre-transition, and that it may require a review by staff. You can request a review if you wish. It's fairly unlikely that staff would flag an entire account in the new system, given that you have more fine-grained control over the images in your account.

• My account has been reviewed as moderate. What does that mean?

  Having a "moderate" flag on your account probably means that you are generally a good self-moderator, but occasionally things pop up in your photostream that may be in the wrong categories. Staff hear about this sort of thing because your fellow members can flag photos around the site if they feel that you have categorized things incorrectly, or they may even send a report to us that some of your content is offensive.

  Remind yourself of our Community Guidelines to see what's OK and what's not on Flickr, and moderate your content accordingly.

  To moderate your content:

  1. Go to the Organizr
  2. Load all images (public, private, and friends/family) that need to be marked as Moderate.
  3. Click Permissions > Set safety filter to set them as Moderate.

  If you have images that should be marked as Restricted, repeat steps 2 & 3 for those as well.

  Once you've done done that - and not before - you can request a review.

• My account has been reviewed as unsafe. What does that mean?

  An "unsafe" account is something we think of as a loose cannon. It's not clear to us that you're moderating your own content at all, or if you are, you're not bearing in mind that there are other people using Flickr and that it's up to you to not be overtly offensive.

  Triggers to flagging an entire account as "unsafe" include staff receiving an unusual number of complaints about your photos, or photos in your stream receiving an unusual number of votes, or if there are an unusual number of blocks against your account. All of these factors can be remedied by you: you simply need to moderate your content using the Safety Level & Content Type categories, so people don't unexpectedly stumble upon content which they may find offensive or otherwise inappropriate.

  You should re-read our Community Guidelines to see what's OK and what's not on Flickr, and moderate your content accordingly.

  To moderate your content:

  1. Go to the Organizr
  2. Load all images (public, private, and friends/family) that need to be marked as Restricted.
  3. Click Permissions > Set safety filter to set them as Restricted.

  If you have images that should be marked as Moderate, repeat steps 2 & 3 for those as well.

  Once you've done done that - and not before - you can request a review.

• What are content filters?

  Flickr is a global community made up of many different kinds of people. What's OK in your back yard may not be OK in theirs. Each one of us bears the responsibility of categorizing our own content within this landscape. So, we've introduced some filters to help everyone try to get along.

  There are 2 types of filters that you need to use for your content.

  1. Safety Level

  • Safe - Content suitable for a global, public audience
  • Moderate - If you're not sure whether your content is suitable for a global, public audience but you think that it doesn't need to be restricted per se, this category is for you
  • Restricted - This is content you probably wouldn't show to your mum, and definitely shouldn't be seen by kids

  2. Content Type

  • Photos / Videos
  • Illustration/Art / Animation/CGI or other non-photographic images, or
  • Screencasts / Screenshots - what's a screenshot

  When you upload content to Flickr, you need to choose where it "fits" in these 2 categories. For example, if you want to upload a screenshot of a web page, you can, but you need to flag it as a screenshot.

  Putting your content into these categories means that everyone can then apply filters to searches they do to make sure they're seeing what they want to see.

  Note: If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Hong Kong, India or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service (this means you won’t be able to turn SafeSearch off). If your Yahoo! ID is based in Germany you are not able to view restricted content due to your local Terms of Service.

  Bear in mind that all content you upload is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service and our Community Guidelines.

  Here are the main links you'll need to set yourself up.

  • Set your Safety Level & Content Type defaults
  • Set your SafeSearch preference (This does not apply if your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Hong Kong, India or Korea. If your Yahoo! ID is based in Germany, you can choose to see safe or moderate content.)
  • Bonus: Opt out of having your photos turn up in searches