Instagram plans warnings over self-harm searches – The Irish Times

Instagram will soon start warning parents if their teen is repeatedly searching for content related to self-harm and suicide in a short period of time, giving parents an early alert that they may need support. The warnings, which will roll out in the coming weeks, will be sent to those parents who supervise a teen Instagram account. Attempted searches that will prompt the alerts include phrases promoting suicide or self-harm or suggesting a teen wants to harm themselves, along with explicit terms such as “suicide” or “self-harm”. Instagram will also point parents to expert resources to help parents tackle sensitive conversations. Instagram owner Meta said it would start informing teen users and their parents about the alerts next week, with the US, UK, Australia and Canada among the first to get the feature from the week after. Other regions, including Ireland, will follow later this year. READ MORE Instagram already blocks content that promotes or glorifies suicide or self-harm and directs searches for this content to support organisations and resources. “The vast majority of teens do not try to search for suicide and self-harm content on Instagram, and when they do, our policy is to block these searches, instead directing
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