Instagram wants to help parents of suicidal teens who use its platform.
To that end, Instagram is launching a tool that will alert parents if their teens routinely search for terms involving suicide and self-harm, The Hillreported.
The tool will be available it the U.S. as well as other countries next week.
Parents will get alerts via email, text or WhatsApp and through an in-app notification. Parents will also have the option to view resources about how to approach the topic with their children, Instagram said in a blog post Thursday.
“Our goal is to empower parents to step in if their teen’s searches suggest they may need support,” the statement read. “We also want to avoid sending these notifications unnecessarily, which, if done too much, could make the notifications less useful overall.”
Instagram stated the platform already blocks searches associated with suicide and self-harm. It also bars posts promoting or glorifying suicide or self-harm and limits the content that teens can see on these issues.
Instagram said it is also building a similar parental alert system for some of its AI experiences.
This would notify parents if their teens attempted to engage in conversations about suicide or self-harm with its AI.
Tech firms have been facing scrutiny over how they protect young users on their platforms.
Instagram is currently on trial alongside YouTube in Los Angeles over allegations that they purposefully designed their products to addict children.
Snap and TikTok were both initially part of the case, but settled shortly before the trial started.
The trial is the first of several due to take place this year. There are cases at the state and federal level that consolidated thousands of lawsuits brought by individuals, school districts and states against the social media companies.
As AI increases in popularity, tech firms are feeling the heat over whether they have sufficient protections in place for children using their AI chatbots. Several families have sued AI companies over the past year as they allege the products drove their children to self-harm or suicide.
