From July 10 through July 24, a survey was made available to Arbitration Committee members and Stewards who had indicated some interest in the topic area of child protection.
Important considerations
The survey as delivered resulted in some limitations around the use of its outcomes:
The survey was taken by 30 users, of which 21 defined the English Wikipedia as their home wiki.
One question had the result of inadvertently making it very easy to identify the survey-taker's user accounts, despite this survey being anonymous. This question and its results were discarded.
Some questions were not clear in their definitions. For instance, the word "child" should have instead been "minor", and "Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable" was ambiguous.
It is worth noting that responses here are based on personal insight. Thus, they may not be reflective of the actual situation on the wiki in question, though could still be used as an indicator.
There was also an open text field allowing survey participants to provide free-form thoughts. These thoughts are not shared here for privacy reasons, but will inform policy development alongside the quantitative data below.
Survey results
Demographics
Which project would you consider your primary or "home" wiki?
Wiki
Responses
English Wikipedia
21
Meta-Wiki
2
Dutch Wikipedia
1
English Wikibooks
1
German Wikipedia
1
Russian Wikipedia
1
Simple English Wikipedia
1
Ukrainian Wikipedia
1
Wikimedia Commons
1
On your home wiki, which of these positions have you held?
Response
Administrator
Bureaucrat
CheckUser (not included in ArbCom duties)
Oversighter (not included in ArbCom duties)
Arbitration Committee member
Steward
Other
I currently hold this position
28
5
15
18
7
7
9
I have held this position in the past but not currently
0
1
2
3
9
0
0
I have never held this role
2
24
13
9
14
23
21
Issues
In the past 12 months, how often have you seen issues related to the following subjects?
Response
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
Never
0
1
15
7
10
11
Once
0
1
4
4
3
9
2-4 times
1
7
4
8
5
5
5-10 times
2
10
1
5
6
1
More than 10 times
26
8
1
3
1
1
I'm not sure
1
3
5
3
5
3
Regarding these issues, to what extent do you believe your community can currently deal with them?
Response
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
Not at all
1
1
4
1
5
15
Somewhat
6
9
13
16
8
7
Mostly
20
17
8
8
10
2
Completely
2
2
2
2
6
3
I'm not sure
1
1
3
3
1
3
Regarding these issues, how much do you believe your community should deal with them?
Response
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
Not at all
0
0
5
0
8
16
Somewhat
0
1
7
7
10
4
Mostly
10
11
7
11
3
3
Completely
19
17
9
10
9
6
I'm not sure
1
1
2
2
0
1
With regards to the following issues, do you agree or disagree that the community should be in charge of dealing with them?
Response
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
Strongly disagree
1
1
8
1
10
21
Disagree
0
0
6
1
5
3
Neither agree nor disagree
0
1
7
5
6
3
Agree
7
10
4
12
5
1
Strongly agree
21
17
4
10
4
2
I'm not sure
1
1
1
1
0
0
Comparison
For the following results, a formula was used to assign a numerical value to each response (e.g. a "Completely" response was given 4 points, "Mostly" 3 points, etc.) and these results normalised to a 5-point scale. Thus, figures closer to 5 were agreed with / had stronger sentiment than those with lower scores.
Question
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
In the past 12 months, how often have you seen issues related to the following subjects?
4.862
3.852
1.760
2.741
2.400
1.963
Regarding these issues, to what extent do you believe your community can currently deal with them?
3.491
3.362
2.870
3.009
3.233
2.176
Regarding these issues, how much do you believe your community should deal with them?
4.569
4.440
3.393
3.884
3.042
2.457
With regards to the following issues, do you agree or disagree that the community should be in charge of dealing with them?
4.621
4.448
2.655
4.000
2.600
1.667
Policies
Are you aware of any existing community policy around these issues?
Response
Users being uncivil to others
Users harassing others through their contributions ("hounding")
Users attempting to obtain personal information about an underage person to contact them off-wiki
Users engaging others in personal conversations that make others uncomfortable
Users advocating for, encouraging, or defending child abuse / pedophilia
Users with off-wiki / "real-life" convictions for child abuse
