Meta introduces parental alerts when teens discuss suicide or self-harm with its AI chatbot

Meta announced on Thursday that it is introducing a new safety feature that will notify parents when their teenager discusses suicide or self-harm with the company’s Meta AI chatbot. The company also said it is developing a capability that could allow it to contact emergency services if conversations indicate that someone may face an immediate risk of suicide.

The latest measures come as Meta and other technology companies continue to face growing scrutiny from regulators, policymakers, and parents over how AI chatbots respond to users experiencing mental health crises, particularly teenagers. Questions surrounding the responsibility of AI companies in these situations are increasingly influencing how chatbot products are designed, deployed, and promoted.

According to Meta, it has created a dedicated AI detection system that identifies conversations in which a teenager makes a clear reference to self-harm or suicide.

“We understand how distressing these alerts may be for a parent to receive,” Meta said in a blog post. “That’s why, as we continue to improve our detection, all chats flagged by our AI will be manually reviewed before an alert is sent. If a teen’s intent is ambiguous, we’ll err on the side of caution and alert the parent. While that means we may sometimes notify parents when there may not be a real cause for concern, we feel this is the right starting point, and we’ll continue to monitor to help make sure we’re in the right place.”

Meta said the parental alert feature is now available for families using Instagram Parental Supervision in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The company plans to expand the feature worldwide before the end of the year.

The new functionality builds on existing parental safeguards already available on Instagram. Meta currently notifies parents if their teenager repeatedly searches for terms related to suicide or self-harm on the platform. It also allows parents to view the topics their teen has discussed with Meta AI over the previous week.

Alongside the new alerts, Meta announced that its “Limited Content” setting, which enables parents to place teenagers into a more restricted Instagram experience, will now extend to Meta AI. While the chatbot is already designed to avoid engaging in sexual, romantic, or alcohol-related conversations with teens, the expanded Limited Content setting broadens those protections by causing the AI to refuse a wider range of sensitive prompts.

Meta also revealed that it intends to contact emergency services if conversations with Meta AI—whether involving a teenager or an adult—suggest that someone may be at immediate risk of suicide. The company noted that it already follows a similar process when posts on Facebook or Instagram indicate a potential suicide risk, and the latest update extends that existing safety approach to interactions taking place through its AI chatbot.