Instagram rolls out parental support alerts globally for teen safety

SINGAPORE – Parents all over the world will be alerted if their teenager repeatedly tries to look up terms related to suicide or self-harm in a short period on Instagram, after the feature was made available globally on Aug 13.

The alerts, first announced on Feb 26, are designed to inform parents that their teen may need support while providing resources to help them manage the issue, said the social media platform, which is owned by Meta Platforms.

To receive the alerts, parents must link their account to their child’s through the supervision settings on Instagram’s Family Centre hub.

The alerts will be sent to parents via e-mail, text or WhatsApp – depending on the contact information they share with the platform – as well as through an in-app notification.

Teens under 16 need a parent’s permission to change their content settings to be less strict on Instagram, with an extra layer of monitoring that can be selected with the agreement of their child.

The new parental support alerts are developed in consultation with experts from Meta’s Suicide and Self-Harm Advisory Group, said Instagram.

The feature was first introduced to parents in the US, Britain, Australia and Canada in March, before expanding to other parts of Europe, Brazil and India in May.

Meta said it is also developing similar parental alerts for certain artificial intelligence experiences. These are intended to notify parents if a teen attempts to engage in certain types of conversations related to suicide or self-harm with the Meta AI assistant.