Instagram (META) will alert parents over their kids’ repeated search for terms associated with suicide or self-harm, the company said on Thursday.
Alerts will be delivered via email, SMS, or WhatsApp based on the parent’s available contact details, along with a notification sent to their Instagram account. The company is also working on sending out similar notifications to parents about their kids’ interactions with artificial intelligence.
“We also want to avoid sending these notifications unnecessarily, which, if done too much, could make the notifications less useful overall,” Meta additionally said in a blog post.
The development comes as Instagram finds itself embroiled in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit alongside Alphabet’s (GOOGL) YouTube.
The plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman, claims that the social media apps were intentionally designed to be addictive, adversely affecting her mental health.