Facebook Suicide Prevention Tool Rolls Out Worldwide In All Languages: Here’s How It Works

Facebook's suicide prevention tool rolls out to all users around the world.
Facebook's suicide prevention tool rolls out to all users around the world. Facebook

Earlier this year, Facebook rolled out a suicide prevention tool for U.S. and U.K. users in partnership with several organizations like Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org and Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention. The social media giant announced this week that the security feature, called Facebook Safety, will be available to all users around the world and supported in all languages the site is accessible in.

“Often, friends and family who are the observers in this situation don’t know what to do,” said Holly Hetherington, a Facebook content strategist working on the project, in a statement when the feature was first launched. “They’re concerned, but they’re worried about saying the wrong thing or somehow making it worse. Socially, mental illness and thoughts about suicide are just not something we talk about.”

The feature lets Facebook users flag a status that concerns them by selecting on “Report Post” and deciding between contacting a friend directly, contacting another friend or reaching out to a suicide helpline. A team at Facebook reviews the post and decides whether the flagged post is a sign of distress — as opposed to a prank-happy user trying to mess with their friend. Should Facebook decide the post is troublesome, then the author receives a private message saying someone is concerned and will receive options to reach out to a friend or helpline, or get tips on how to cope.

"We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who review any report that comes in," wrote Rob Boyle, Facebook product manager, and Nicole Staubli, Facebook community operations safety specialist, in a post for Facebook Safety. "They prioritize the most serious reports, like self-injury, and send help and resources to those in distress."

They added: "For those who may need help we have significantly expanded the support and resources that are available to them the next time they log on to Facebook after we review a report of something they’ve posted. Besides encouraging them to connect with a mental health expert at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, we now also give them the option of reaching out to a friend, and provide tips and advice on how they can work through these feelings. All of these resources were created in conjunction with our clinical and academic partners."

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