Our Wave Review Guidelines

Overview

The purpose of these guidelines is to describe the ways in which the Our Wave review team reviews and posts survivor stories on our platform. This includes the rules we follow, the content we review, and a few of the reasons we decide to add trigger warnings, not post stories, or send resources to survivors.

Redacting Identifiable Content

Because the intention of Our Wave is to provide a safe and confidential space for survivors, our first job is to redact any information that can identify the survivor or may compromise survivor safety (in case of retaliation). Below is a step by step guide on how we redact content and what type of content is usually redacted.

Types of Content to be Redacted

In general, we redact anything that could give a clue to a survivor’s identity or location. Just because an individual cannot identify them, doesn’t mean their friend or perpetrator might not be able to.

Names

All first and last names are redacted from stories.

• If the name mentioned is the survivor’s name, we typically replace the name provided with “Survivor”
• If the name mentioned is the perpetrator’s name, we typically replace the name provided with “name”
• If the name mentioned is someone else in their life, we typically replace the name provided with who they are in relation to the survivor (i.e. friend, sibling, teacher, parent, etc.).
  

Other Proper Nouns (e.g. locations, organizations, schools)

Even if they are speaking positively about a place, we redact any proper noun and replace it with the type of noun it is (e.g. we replace “University of Michigan with “university”-- we replace “New Jersey” with “state”)

Decision To Not Post Stories

Our Wave reserves the right to not post stories that we deem are inappropriate or not applicable to our website. It is our responsibility to determine whether or not a story is appropriate for our page.

Story Not Appropriate

Stories that are not appropriate for Our Wave include:

1. Stories that belittle or put down survivor’s experiences
   Any story that talks negatively about survivors or blames them for their experiences
2. Stories that are obscene or vulgar
   Any story that has excessive graphic details or foul language
3. Stories that are considered “spam”
   Any submission where someone trying to advertise or sell something
4. Stories that appear to be “trolling”
5. Stories that the author explicitly states that they are under the age of 18

If we believe a story may not be appropriate for our page, we will escalate the review to one of our trauma experts. While we want to represent a diversity of experiences, we want to be sure we are creating a safe environment for survivors to learn from each other.

Story Not Applicable

Stories that are not applicable to Our Wave include:

1. Any submission that does not relate in any way to sexual assault, trauma, violence, or harassment
2. Submissions that do not have a logical flow or are difficult to read or understand

If we believe a story is not applicable, we will escalate the review to one of our trauma experts. While we want to represent a diversity of experiences, we want to be sure we are focusing on survivors of trauma and violence.

Recognizing and Acting on Suicidality

Survivors of sexual violence are at very high risk for a host of mental health concerns including suicidality. As reviewers, we work very closely with our trauma experts to complete the review, and will often send additional resources to the survivor via email.

Elements of Suicidality

• Ideation — frequency, intensity, duration
• Plan — timing, location, lethality, availability, preparatory acts
• Behaviors — past attempts, aborted attempts, rehearsals (tying noose, loading gun) vs. non-suicidal self-injurious actions
• Intent — extent to which the individual expects to carry out the plan and, two, believes the plan/act to be lethal vs. self-injurious.

What do we do once we read a story that contains a suicidal ideation or statement?

1. If it is in the low risk category
   1. We flag it with a trigger warning and post the story as usual
   2. The survivor will receive a more personalized email with mental health resources
2. If is it in the moderate or high risk category
   1. We do not post the story
   2. We escalate the story to our trauma experts to review
   3. The survivor will receive a more personalized email with mental health resources

Recognizing and Acting on Homicidality

Although unlikely, it is possible that survivors of sexual violence may express wanting to injure/hurt others through our platform. This is something we want to take seriously. As reviewers, we work very closely with our trauma experts to complete the review, and will often send additional resources to the survivor via email.

Elements of Homicidality

• Beliefs — If the survivor mentions hateful beliefs about an individual or group
• Plan — The survivor mentions a specific plan to harm someone else
• Available means and opportunity — If the individual mentions actually having access to a weapon, especially a gun, and has expressed homicidal intent and is able to reach the victim without much difficulty, there is a serious risk
• Past experiences with violence — If the individual mentioned acting upon violent feelings in the past and has a record of attempting to kill or hurt others, the risk is great that they will do it again, especially if their past experience did not result in a negative outcome. Violations of court orders or parole that have gone unpunished are examples of this

What do we do once we read a story that contains a homicidal ideation or statement?

1. If it is in the low risk category
   1. We flag it with a trigger warning and post the story as usual
   2. The survivor will get a more personalized email with mental health resources
2. If is it in the moderate or high risk category
   1. We do not post the story
   2. We escalate the story to our trauma experts to review
   3. The survivor will receive a more personalized email with mental health resources

Reporting Sexual Abuse of Minors

Our terms and conditions state that individuals must be over the age of 18 to post a story on our page. Despite this, some minors may post stories on our page. We follow the following guidelines when reviewing these stories:

1. If a person is talking about childhood sexual abuse in the past tense, but it appears that they are over the age of 18 now, we post the story as usual.
2. If the person explicitly mentions that they are under the age of 18, we do not post the story and escalate the review to our trauma experts.
3. If we suspect the person is under the age of 18, but are not sure, we escalate the review to our trauma experts.

Thank you for being part of the Our Wave Community. We have carefully designed and reviewed these guidelines to create the safest environment possible for survivors while emphasizing the power of survivor storytelling. If you have any questions about these guidelines, please get in touch.

Updated July 15, 2021