Instagram will notify parents if children are browsing content about self-harm or suicide

The new functionality will first be available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and later in the year in the rest of the world. However, some experts and associations for suicide prevention have expressed deep concern, warning that “clumsily designed” measures could do more harm than good.

How the new alarm system works

The notification system is designed as an upgrade to the existing parental control tools within Instagram’s “Family Center”. For the feature to be active at all, parents and teens must first agree to link their accounts. Once monitoring is in place, the system will automatically respond to worrisome behavior patterns.

The alarm will not be activated after one search, but exclusively if the teenager repeatedly tries to search terms like “suicide” or phrases that indicate the intention of self-harm in a short period of time. In this case, the parent will receive a notification through the application itself, e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp, depending on the contact information provided.

By clicking on the notification, the parent will be shown a full-screen message explaining the situation. In addition to the warning itself, Meta will also offer parents access to the professional resources they need to help them conduct sensitive and difficult conversations with their children. The company says that they are aware that parents could also receive false alarms, but that they have decided to “err on the side of caution”.

A measure that provokes sharp criticism

Despiteč Mental health associations are not unanimous in their support of Meta’s intentions. The Molly Rose Foundation, founded in memory of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life after being exposed to harmful content on Instagram, strongly criticized the new measure.

​- This clumsy announcement is fraught with risks and we are concerned that forced disclosures could do more harm than good – said the foundation’s CEO Andy Burrows.

​- Every parent would like to know if their child is struggling, but these superficial notifications will leave them panicked and unprepared for the sensitive and difficult conversations that will follow. The onus should be on addressing the risks within the platform, not on yet another poorly timed announcement that shifts the responsibility to parents – added Burrows.

Ged Flynn, executive director of the charity Papyrus Prevention of Young Suicide, shares a similar view, arguing that Meta is ignoring the real problem.

​- Parents contact us every day and tell us how worried they are about their children on the Internet. They don’t want to be warned after their children browse harmful content; they don’t want such content to be served to them at all through mindless algorithms.

Response to legal and social pressure

This move by Meta comes at a time when the company is facing dozens of lawsuits and increasing pressure from regulators around the world. Recently published internal documents revealed that the company was aware that Instagram was exacerbating body image issues in one in three teenage girls. Many analysts compare the current situation with social networks to the “tobacco moment”, alluding to the court processes that exposed the harmfulness of the tobacco industry.

Meta also announced that in the coming months it plans to introduce similar parental alarms for teenagers’ interactions with AI chatbots, recognizing that young people are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence for support. While some experts welcome these tools as a step forward, others warn of the danger of damaging the trust between children and parents, which could lead to teenagers avoiding seeking help altogether. on the internet.