Facebook Introduces Suicide Prevention Support

People say a lot about their personal lives on Facebook. They complain about breakups, disappointments, sadness. And sometimes they post suicide notes. 

Facebook is making positive steps toward doing something about it. Certainly, Facebook has a mixed record of promoting safety on their site, but this time, they worked with organizations like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and others. On February 25th, Facebook announced the results of those efforts. 

New tools will allow people to report concerning behavior they see in their friends. There are teams of live humans on the other end - not computer algorithms - that will read the reports and send offers of help to people who seem at risk for self harm. They also offer help to the people who reported the posts so they may be able to help their friends. 

You'll start to see these tools in the next couple months. It seems like a great first step toward integrating more support into social media. 

Source: Facebook

Source: Facebook