Backpage.com is committed to preventing those who are intent on misusing the site for illegal purposes. We have implemented a series of new safety enhancements over the past several months to better protect our communities and will continue to further increase our safety practices.
-- Steve Suskin
Backpage.com spokesperson
sps@backpage.com
Backpage.com Safety & Security Measures
The following are some examples of recent safety measures that Backpage.com has implemented.
Implementing Stronger Policies to Prevent Illegal Activity
- Implemented no nudity policy
- Implemented strict content policies to prevent illegal activity
- Implemented stricter image content standards
Preventing Inappropriate Content
- Images are reviewed for compliance with content policies
- Keyword searches conducted across site to locate inappropriate or illegal content
- Banned inappropriate terms list utilized to identify and prevent illegal content
- Child exploitation response process used to prioritize child related matters
Increasing Online Classified Ad Controls to Prevent Abuse
- Inappropriate ad content removed
- Known bad URLs blocked from being posted on site
- HTML images blocked in ads (except for trusted users)
- Character limit on ads (ad size) reduced significantly
- Users attempting to inappropriately edit ads after review/approval blocked from ad editing process
- All ads edited by user after initial review and approval are reviewed again
- Built tool to restrict ad poster capabilities for policy violations
- Suspicious URLs linked to off-site destinations reviewed manually by staff for appropriateness
- Ad moderator accountability system implemented to increase quality and efficiency and moderation staff increased significantly
- Built quality assurance tool to increase ad moderator effectiveness
- Two tier system used to moderate content to increase quality of ad review
- Time alerts utilized to ensure ads are reviewed within 20 minutes of upload
- Ads deleted for egregious violations of Terms of Use
- CAPTCHAs added to report abuse process to prevent abuse reporting misuse
- Increased security measures to better protect user information
Partnering with Law Enforcement and Safety Advocates/Experts
- Added time, date, and time zone stamps to improve quality of information provided to law enforcement
- Ads containing possible minors investigated and referred to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
- All law enforcement inquiries involving minors given first response priority
- Worked with law enforcement to improve understandability of information provided during investigations
- Created FAQ document with each Cybertipline report to assist law enforcement
- Created an automated process to expedite ad reporting to NCMEC.
- Child safety experts enlisted to help guide safety strategies and help prevent illegal misuse of Backpage.com
Click here to download the Backpage Safety & Security Measures (Updated 9/29) in PDF format.
