Instagram will be rolling out a key safety feature for its 'Teen Accounts', which will be a part of the parental supervision section. The social media platform will now notify parents if their teen child has repeatedly searched up topics related suicide and self harm, according to a release from the company.
"These alerts are designed to make sure parents are aware if their teen is repeatedly trying to search for this content, and to give them the resources they need to support their teen," Instagram said.
The company stated that a majority of teen users don't search up these topics and if they do, the firm's policy is to block them and direct them to helpline and support resources.
The alerts will be sent via a variety of avenues such as email, text and WhatsApp, based on the contact information available to the application, along with sending in-app notifications. Tapping on the notification will open up a full-screen message explaining that their teen has searched Instagram for terms associated with suicide or self-harm in a short span of time.
Parents will also have the option to view 'expert resources' such as infographics that are designed to help parents broach such sensitive topics with their child.
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These alerts will be made accessible to parents who are using Instagram's parental supervision features in the US, UK, Australia and Canada in the coming week, and be available to users in other regions later in 2026.
Instagram's parent company Meta said that it analysed users' Search patterns on their app and consulted with the experts from its Suicide And Self-Harm advisory group. The firm said that it decided on a threshold that needs a few searches within a short span of time while "still erring on the side of caution."
This means that it may sometimes notify parents even if there isn't any substantial cause of concern as the firm sees it as the "right starting point" with it continuing to monitor and listen to feedback to make sure that it gets it right.
"Our goal is to empower parents to step in if their teen's searches suggest they may need support. We also want to avoid sending these notifications unnecessarily, which, if done too much, could make the notifications less useful overall," Meta said.
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