Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for 15-29 year olds. And Facebook has launched new tools to help people who may be thinking of suicide, and for friends and family who want to help.
According to Mark Zu
ckerberg CEO of Facebook in a post, “Preventing suicide is complicated, but experts say one of the best ways to help is if someone who is in distress hears from people who care about them.”
“When someone is thinking of suicide or hurting themselves, we already have tools that let friends reach out directly or report a post to us so we can help. But with billions of posts, comments and messages every day, we’re limited by what people actually report to us. As a result, there have been terribly tragic events — including suicides, some live streamed — that might have been prevented if someone had realized what was happening earlier.”
The changes made are as follows:
- Redesign of suicide prevention tools and their integration into Live video. People can now reach out to someone directly or report the stream, and the person streaming can contact a friend or a helpline.
- Giving people the ability to chat directly with someone from organizations like Crisis Text Line, Lifeline, and the National Eating Disorder Association.
- Testing ways to use artificial intelligence to find patterns in posts that have been reported for suicide and make it easier to identify similar posts — even if a friend hasn’t reported it. Facebook teams will review these posts and reach out to help if it’s appropriate.
Mark reiterated that an important part of Facebook’s mission is keeping the community safe. And Facebook is always looking to do more.
