Meta will alert parents if their teens discuss self harm with Meta AI tools - Engadget

The company is also building the ability to contact emergency services if a user may be at imminent risk of harming themselves. Meta is expanding its safeguards for teen users in an effort to show parents, and perhaps regulators, that its platforms are safe for them to use. A few months after it started showing guardians the topics of their teens' AI conversations, Meta has introduced a new safety protection feature that will also let them know if their children's chats suggest they're considering self-harm or suicide. When an teen user talks about suicide or self-harm, Meta AI already directs them to crisis helplines and encourage them to reach out to an adult who can help. Starting today, the company will also proactively notify the teen's supervising parents or guardians that they're at risk. It will share resources and advice on what they can do for their children, as well. Meta says it built a dedicated AI system to identify these conversations, but it will manually review all chats flagged by the AI before it sends out an alert in order not to cause panic when there's no real cause for it. However, it will err on the side of caution and send out the notification even if the t