Can a disclaimer be added to certain profiles?

Question

Hello everybody, 

Lovely Melanie Paul was asked if Remember the Children team could do something to help the children profiles found in the Murder Victims category.

I took a first look and came across the four profiles of the little girls murdered by a serial killer in the 80’s. 

My initial thought was why would someone create these profiles, this is a website for genealogy. Uploading profiles of individuals born in the 80’s; children or not; makes it impossible to attach to parents and the rest of “the tree”. 

I took a look at the only source added to these profiles, only from a year or so ago, some random free space type of website that of course didn’t work anymore. I assume that the creator of the profiles went through some sort of list over known Japanese individuals and didn’t think twice before adding these children, or about the sensitive material that shows up when searching information and sources for these profiles.

Since the profiles are here there’s nothing else to do but to try to make them as beautiful and complete as possible to try and honor these little lives. But finding anything about these girls is impossible all you find is more gruesome information about the serial killer and it is seriously depressing to have to link to his Wikipedia profile because that is the most mild and most factual source out there.. for now.

Side note, if someone with nerves strong enough and knowledge about Japan archives and genealogy can help out and find some free standing sources or any information about these girls that doesn’t refer to their deaths I for one would be very appreciative if it can be added to their profiles.

In the meanwhile... I feel some profiles should have some sort of disclaimer, an short information about the intentions of WikiTree and how these profiles in particular came to be. And that the information found on some of the sources can be extremely upsetting. Is that allowed and could someone advice how to formulate such a thing and make it pop in the bio?

I know we are mostly mature people, and what can be found on WikiTree can generally be found elsewhere on the Internet as well. But.. I’ve read things this week that I wish I never did, cause some things can not be forgotten. Just because some people post information willi-nilly to their websites doesn’t mean we have to.

Here’s a link to the subcategory I created for the girls, since I think that I can only add one ID to this post:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Otaku_Murderer_Victims

I don’t know if the serial killer is on WT, probably is since these girls are but I for one is not interested in looking it up. I know he has a profile on Find a Grave.. he is all over the Internet. Yet these girls are only mentioned in relation to him which is disgusting. 

I don’t know if I should talk to the creator; perhaps someone already did; concerning uploading profiles that can’t be linked to parents.. I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or potentially feel ganged up on.. have to assume it was done with good intentions.

Comments

He is at 勤 宮﨑

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I was the person who came across a number of profiles of American children who have been murdered within the last 20-30 years. The profiles contained nothing of their lives, all emphasis was on a brutal death, there were no relatives connected and then the profiles were orphaned. They appeared to me to be cold and callous and I would expect quite upsetting for any close relatives who may find them here.

Mel and I chat a bit privately, and since I have little experience at American genealogy, and not knowing the extent of the resources of the Remember the Children team, (i.e. have you provided some guidance for dealing with profiles of murdered children?) I asked Mel whether RTC would be in a position to improve these profiles.

Where possible I would like to see a focus on their humanity, rather than their death. I understand that it may not be possible to find that information, and some sort of warning on the profile would be prudent.

I have been informed that the person who created them has been told to cease creating profiles like this.

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Hi Leandra, beautiful name by the way.

This is all new to RTC which is why this is being discussed. But I like you took a look and came across these little girls. After a whole afternoon trying to find anything about these children besides the gruesome details of their death (was hoping for some interview with a relative or information from the funeral since there was photos of it on some websites regarding the murderer) to be able to write something about them that is not about him. Well I thought I would look at just one more profile in the category, went straight onto a profile of an infant that was starved to death by the grandparents who was supposed to care for the little one. This was from 2018!

I get that in some twisted way people consider them famous, famous for the way they died or for who killed them and therefore should be added to the tree. But to me this is a completely brainless thing to do. Only their direct relatives should be allowed to add them, so that they can be properly honored.

People might think this is just a factual website, with data on it. But these are people and these people have living relatives. There seems to be a serious lack of respect for the dead going around.

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These profiles are disturbing and I'm far from squeamish or sensitive. By my way of thinking their existence could encourage someone else who's not quite balanced to create more. I see they're orphaned profiles, perhaps they could be adopted and the status set to the strictest privacy level to prevent them from being viewed by outsiders. Just a thought.

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I agree, Leigh Anne. This has been proposed in a more recent G2G discussion on the topic. See Should “modern” profiles of dead children be set private?

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Hi, everybody ... please see my answer here.

Thanks!!! 

Answer 1

I have found via another unrelated post that the black sheep project uses a sticker that works as a disclaimer. I think it should be sufficient in warning the reader of the material on the profile, but does not explain what the reasons are for the profile being made.. can this be used on murder victims profiles or does it belong only on perpetrators profiles?

Code used:	Displays as:
{{Black Sheep Warning}}

 

Comments

Oh the black sheep project was disbanded..

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Yes, it was. Parts of it will remain as parts of other projects, but as a whole, it's disbanded.

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The Australia Project uses a warning -- usually just text -- on the profiles of First Nations people that there may be content included therein that some may find disturbing.  (Photographs and / or names of deceased persons.)

Is there any reason we could not do something similar?  Unless it is thought we should just use the Black Sheep warning sticker.  (My problem with the sticker is, you're already at the biography before you see the warning.)

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I think we should just use the sticker and like Kenneth suggests, write the reasons for the profiles being created/intentions of WT under a research note heading. But at the same time it has nothing to do with research notes, maybe simply make a header named Disclaimer?

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Melanie asked: "Is there any reason we could not do something similar [to Australia Project...warning(s) -- usually just text]?" An example of such a warning is on the profile of Clara (Campbell) Karpany. The Australia Project warning follows the Biography header.

I think this is a very good idea. However, as Melanie also points out, it would be better if you saw the warning before the biography.

A step towards this would be to place the text warning above the Biography header (probably in bold face). There is scope for this in Help:Biographies Optional:Additional subsections, which includes the point

• If the narrative is particularly long, you can include a one or two paragraph summary. This should be above the Biography heading and should not have a subheader of its own.

The narrative may not be long in this case, but it does need a summary—namely, the warning.

As for what the warning says, Antonia made some suggestions under another answer. Maybe keep it short and simple, something like: "The content of the following biography may be distressing as it refers to strong violence. If this could be traumatising, please do not read on."

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A very good answer Jim. Thank you.

Answer 2

This was discussed earlier this year:https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1109687/should-profiles-have-content-warnings-or-trigger-warnings

Result: no warning necessary.

Comments

All due respect I think that discussion was more in relation to historical situations like slavery and war. For these girls it is different especially since they likely have close relatives that uses the internet. That’s the thing with WikiTree there is as many situations as there is individuals so I do not think that this is a done case.

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That discussion did not decide that warnings were disallowed.  It also showed that there are cases for cultural reasons why such might be included — even if, as has been argued, the reader is already on the profile by the time the warning is seen.

It is for this latter reason that I believe such warnings should be placed above the biography header, and centred, not over to one side as a sticker.

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Warning or no, I have a hard time finding these profiles appropriate. They are far too recent for genealogy. The Disasters project set a limit and does not endorse work on disasters that occurred less than 75 years ago.

Why does not the Notables project something similar? I've seen in their monthly posts that creation of profiles for notables who passed away is discouraged if they were young enough to have living parents. It would make sense to "not endorse" creating profiles for victims who were born after a certain date, say 70 or 75 years ago. This would not prevent anyone from creating the profiles obviously, but it might give pause to some contributors. And then recent profiles could be kept private.

And although the topic of slavery was much considered in that thread about content warnings, personnally, I never felt it was just historic. I always assumed it was about all kinds of disturbing content, including descriptions of crimes.

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I don't think any of us are endorsing such profile creation.  It may be a case for a Mentor to step in.

All Antonia and I (and the person who contacted me) are concerned about is treating those profiles already created with some dignity and respect, and some sensitivity.

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Yes Melanie is right, although I agree they should not have been created but the discussion is more about how to treat these profiles now that they are here.

Firstly I would like a warning like the black sheep sticker on profiles like these but I also agree it should be more centered instead of to the side like the sticker. I know you can add a box with text but the question is what should it say?

Since there doesn’t seem to be any rules against it, let’s maybe start there. Something like: “Warning, the information included on this page might be upsetting to some people. Read on with caution. This profile was created by a volunteer and although privacy rules dictate that deceased people may be added, it is advices never to add individuals who could have living parents as this defeats the purpose of being able to connect them to the global tree. Unless added by a direct relative... “

I really do not know, I am also not a native English speaker.. just spitballing.

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Currently there is no real need to put warnings on the profiles, unless someone decides to add more details to them.

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Just to clarify, I'm aware that most of these profiles were created several years ago by contributors who have either become inactive or chosen to focus on other things. And yes, the state the profiles are in is often disgraceful. I just would like no more such profiles to be created in the future (with exceptions, like when the profile is created by a family member and the profile is private).

Answer 3

Why not add a '===Research note===' that explains why the profile has been added to WT when no genealogical connections can be added. No pretty picture or framed statement but the message is still there. Someone will pick up the profile in years to come and connect it, possibly even members of the relevant family. I wouldn't even mention the murderer's name, just state 'murdered'.

Answer 4

Living children access and read what is on WikiTree.  I personally would not want this site to end up on a blacklist. What do schools use to protect children from content that requires a disclaimer? (I'm a grandparent now; not the responsible parent.)

There was more; I deleted it.  Save the Living Children.

Comments

You make a very good point. I would prefer that these sort of profiles was removed or unlisted since they can not be connected to ancestors anyways. Especially because WT profiles shows up on google search. I do not think that school children would come across these particular profiles though, unless they weren’t looking for them to begin with. But still.. we wouldn’t want to discourage or scare people away either, no matter if they’re grown or not.

I don’t know.. I suppose removing the death date would unlist them, but then you might have an issue with duplicates. Although I don’t think too many people are uploading murder victims on a day to day basis. What is the time limitation on profiles again, 70 years? I know different countries has different privacy rules but I think 70-100 years covers it.

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Removing the death date would fall under "deliberately removing valid information". Anyone who does that would be asked to stop, because of Honor Code II (accuracy). So - not a solution. Making the profile either private, or private with public tree, would work as these privacy level both hide the biography to whoever is not on the trusted list.