Meta AI to alert parents when teens discuss suicide or self‑harm

Meta is adding a new safety feature to its AI chatbots that will notify parents when a supervised teen mentions suicide or self‑harm. The system uses a dedicated AI detector to flag clear or subtle references, after which a human moderator reviews the conversation before an alert is sent.

Alerts are currently live for parents using Instagram’s supervision tools in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, and Meta plans a global rollout by the end of the year. Each notification includes expert‑crafted resources to help families discuss the issue.

Meta is also extending its limited‑content settings so the AI will refuse sexual, romantic or other risky prompts for teen accounts, and it is building a separate system that can contact emergency services when a conversation indicates an imminent risk of self‑harm. The feature is part of broader parental‑control updates that Meta has introduced after consulting more than 75 clinicians and mental‑health experts.