Instagram has announced a new initiative aimed at enhancing the safety of young users by alerting parents if their children repeatedly search for phrases that are linked to suicide or self-harm. However, this feature will be available only to parents who have joined Instagram’s parental supervision program.

This development is part of Instagram’s ongoing effort to create a safer environment for teens. The platform already prevents such harmful content from appearing in search results for teen accounts and instead guides users towards support helplines.

The announcement comes at a critical time for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, which is currently facing two significant trials regarding the impact of its platforms on children. One trial in Los Angeles is examining whether Meta’s platforms intentionally cause addiction and harm to minors, while another in New Mexico investigates whether the company failed to protect children from sexual exploitation online. Numerous families, school districts, and government bodies have filed lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies, accusing them of designing addictive platforms and neglecting to shield children from harmful content that may lead to depression, eating disorders, and even suicide.

While Meta’s leadership, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has denied claims that their platforms cause addiction, Zuckerberg has maintained that current scientific research has not conclusively proven that social media is detrimental to mental health.

The new alerts will be delivered through various channels such as email, text, or WhatsApp, based on the parent’s available contact information, and also as a notification within the parent’s Instagram account.

The alerts will be sent via email, text or WhatsApp, depending on the parent’s contact information available, as well as a notification through the parent’s Instagram account.

“Our goal is to empower parents to step in if their teen’s searches suggest they may need support. We also want to avoid sending these notifications unnecessarily, which, if done too much, could make the notifications less useful overall,” Meta said in a blog post.

Josh Golin, executive director of the nonprofit Fairplay, was skeptical of the new tool, saying Instagram “is clearly making this move now because the company is currently on trial in two different states for addicting and harming kids.”

“Once again, Meta is shifting the burden to parents rather than fixing the dangerous flaws in how it designs its algorithms and platforms,” Golin said. “And all children deserve to be protected, regardless of whether their parents have enrolled in and utilize Meta’s supervision tools. If a product is not safe for teens to use without parental intervention, it shouldn’t be marketed to teens at all.”

Meta said it is also working on similar notifications to parents about their kids’ interactions with artificial intelligence.

“These will notify parents if a teen attempts to engage in certain types of conversations related to suicide or self-harm with our AI,” Meta said. “This is important work and we’ll have more to share in the coming months.”

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK], or text TALK to 741-741 for free confidential emotional support 24 hours a day 7 days a week.