Instagram to alert parents if teens 'repeatedly' search for self-harm terms
The new feature comes as other countries consider their own social media bans for teenagers. (ABC North Qld: Meghan Dansie)
In short:
Instagram will send alerts to opted-in parent accounts if a child searches for suicide or self-harm content repeatedly.
There are concerns about the evolution of online language and the limitation that it only applies to "teen accounts".
What's next?
The feature will be introduced in Australia next week, Meta said.
Instagram will alert parents if their child searches for suicide or self-harm terms, the company behind the social media platform has said.
If a child using a "Teen Account" frequently searches for terms about suicide or self-harm within a short period of time, an adult would receive an alert, Meta said. The adult account must be opted in to supervision settings over the teen account.
The alerts build on Instagram's existing policy to block harmful content searches and redirect people to support resources, Meta said, adding that it would begin the alerts next week for those signed up in Australia, the UK, the US and Canada.
It comes as several countries, including the UK, France and Spain, indicate they are looking to follow Australia's lead with their own social media bans for teenagers.
Meta said alerts would be sent to parents via email, text, or WhatsApp, as well as through an in-app notification. (Supplied: Meta)
'Constantly chasing the evolution of language'
The alerts to supervising accounts would come with resources to help adults approach a conversation with the child, Meta said.
"These alerts build on our existing work to help protect teens from potentially harmful content on Instagram," the platform said in a statement.
Mia Bannister lost her son, Ollie, to suicide when he was 14 years old after sustained online bullying and an eating disorder, which she says was fuelled by social media algorithms.
Ms Bannister said she had "mixed feelings" about the announcement.
"On one hand, any step that increases parental awareness is preferable to silence," she said.
"But this is a reactive measure from Meta, not a preventative one," she said.
"An alert after 'a few searches within a short period' may be too late for some families," she said, calling for "meaningful age enforcement and structural changes to platform design".
"We need prevention, not just notification."
Lisa Given, a professor of information sciences at RMIT University, told the ABC News Channel that there were a lot of loopholes with the idea, including the language young people used on social media to discuss harmful content.
"I think they would be constantly chasing the evolution of teen language," she said.
"Just putting a few filters around common words is not going to be sufficient.
"They are, in this case, putting a lot of the onus back on parents."
Caroline Thain, the National Clinical Adviser of youth mental health organisation headspace said the announcement was an important reminder for families to keep up conversations.
"This is a chance for families to talk with their young person about what they’re searching for, reassure them they won’t be judged, and remind them that if they’re feeling distressed or thinking about self-harm, they can come to a trusted adult for support before turning to a search engine," she said.
Meta under scrutiny over its platforms
Meta is facing multiple legal battles over its social media networks, particularly in the US.
"They're definitely on the defensive," Professor Given said, adding: "My concern is that they're not dealing with harmful content."
In Los Angeles earlier in February, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg testified for the first time to a jury about Instagram's effect on the mental health of young users.
The case is between Meta and a California woman who accuses Meta and Google of deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive and causing harm to her mental health when she was a child.
Mr Zuckerberg said that while Meta previously had goals related to the amount of time users spent on the app, it had since changed its approach.
He also pointed to a finding by the National Academies of Sciences that research does not show social media changes children's mental health.
Mark Zuckerberg arriving in court in Los Angeles. (AP: Ryan Sun)
Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri testified last week that he was unaware of a recent Meta study showing no link between parental supervision and teenagers' attentiveness to their own social media use.
A Reuters report from October said that Meta researchers found teens who reported that Instagram regularly made them feel bad about their bodies saw significantly more "eating disorder adjacent content" than those who did not.
In 2024, Mr Zuckerberg apologised to families who said their children had been harmed by social media during a hearing in the US Senate.
"I'm sorry for everything you've all gone through," Mr Zuckerberg said after he was pressed about apologising directly. "It's terrible. No-one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered."