Instagram to Begin Parental Alerts of Teen Searches for Suicide or Self-Harm

The social media platform Instagram is taking proactive steps to help prevent teen suicide or self-harm by alerting parents using its supervision features about their teens’ searches related to life-threatening topics.

In its Feb. 26 announcement, Instagram parent company, Meta, said it is creating these alerts to ensure parents are aware if their teen is repeatedly trying to search for this type of content, and to provide the resources they need to offer support to their child.

“We understand how sensitive these issues are, and how distressing it could be for a parent to receive an alert like this,” the statement reads.

“The vast majority of teens do not try to search for suicide and self-harm content on Instagram, and when they do, our policy is to block these searches, instead directing them to resources and helplines that can offer support.”

The new parental alerts are expected to launch next week in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and will be available in other countries later this year.

Parents enrolled in Instagram’s supervision program will be notified next week about the new alerts. Instagram will monitor any searches that contain terms like “suicide, “self-harm,” or any phrases related to life-ending suggestions.

The alerts will be sent to parents via email, text, or WhatsApp, depending on the contact information available, as well as through an in-app notification. When the parent taps on the notification, it will open to a full-screen message explaining that their teen has repeatedly tried to search for terms associated with suicide or self-harm within a short time span.

“When a young person searches about suicide or self-harm, empowering a parent to step in can be extremely important,” Dr. Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, said in the announcement.

“The fact that Meta has now built this in is a meaningful step forward and is the kind of change that child safety experts have been pushing for.”

Meta added that it also consulted with experts from its Suicide and Self-Harm Advisory Group in planning these notifications.

“We feel—and experts agree—that this is the right starting point, and we’ll continue to monitor and listen to feedback to make sure we’re in the right place,” the statement reads.

In addition, the social media platform enforces its strict policies against content that promotes or glorifies suicide or self-harm. Meta is also building similar parental notifications for teens’ conversations with artificial intelligence (AI), which will be coming later this year.

This new policy is the latest protection for Teen Accounts and Instagram’s parental supervision features that were first introduced in September 2024. This allows parents to limit who can contact their teens as well as the content they view. Teens under 16 need a parent’s permission to change any of the built-in protections.

According to a 2025 Pew Research Center December report, about six in 10 teenagers consistently use Instagram and TikTok, and nearly nine in 10 are using YouTube. Among teenagers 15–17 years old, 43 percent admit to being online almost constantly. Among teens aged 13–14, 34 percent said they spend a lot of their time online.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people throughout the United States, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. For those aged 10–14, it’s the second leading cause of death, with boys four times more likely to die from suicide than girls. Guns are used in more than half of all youth suicides.

The major causes of youth suicide listed include changes in family structure, such as divorce or siblings moving out, relocating to a new town or state, changes in friendship, bullying and cyberbullying, problems in school, stress, or other losses.

Warning signs that parents should look for range from changes in eating or sleeping habits and loss of interest in normal activities, to acting-out behaviors and drug or alcohol use.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or emotional distress, help is available in the United States by calling or texting the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, which operates 24 hours a day.