This acronym first appeared online back in the 1990s and is a warning of sorts. Here's what it means
In recent weeks, it's been back in the news thanks to Twitter's decision to "censor" NSFW content and profiles. The microblogging social, in fact, has limited the vision of these accounts, asking users to verify their real identity, in order to make sure that they were not automated bots but people in the flesh.
Exactly, however, what does it mean NSFW content and why Twitter has decided to act so heavily. NSFW is one of the oldest acronyms on the web and, until recently, was widely used within forums or portals for sharing "particular" content. Lately, it has been used more and more frequently also within the blogosphere and social networks in general, where it is used to "alert" users and warn them about rather peculiar contents. Let's see what NSFW means and what are the contents labeled with this acronym.
What does NSFW mean
As mentioned, NSFW is one of the oldest acronyms on the Net (according to a source, it dates back to 1998) and stands for Not Safe For Work or Not Suitable For Work. Literally translated it means "Not Safe For Work" or "Not Suitable For Work". If used correctly, then, it is a kind of warning about content that, if displayed in the workplace (or in a public place) could create some problems or embarrass you. If we wanted, we could translate it with the Italian VM18 (i.e., forbidden to people under 18 years old) even if there's a subtle difference between the two: VM18 stands for a ban, NSFW is more of a warning about the nature of the content you're about to open.
How to use NSFW
Now that we know what NSFW means, let's also see how to use this acronym and what are NSFW posts and contents. Let's take the case of Twitter, with which we opened the article. The microblogging platform has in fact decided to give a cut to profiles with red light content (if not even porn) and make sure they were not used for mere spam. This, however, is only one type of possible NSFW posts or profiles.
A NSFW content, then, can be a photo, a video, an audio or even a text with information that does not conform to "common morals": it can be a sex tape or a red light photo, or a text containing rough revelations, or an audio full of swear words and profanity. So when someone uses - correctly - NSFW, they want to put you on the spot: you may open it, but you do so at your own risk. If someone notices what you are seeing, you might even get into trouble.