Meta has introduced a new safety feature designed to help protect teenagers using its AI chatbot. If a child talks about suicide or self-harm while chatting with Meta AI on Instagram or other Meta platforms, parents will receive an alert.

The feature is aimed at strengthening online safety for young users as AI companies face growing pressure over how chatbots handle conversations related to mental health, especially those involving children and teenagers.

Initially, the feature is being rolled out to parents who use Instagram's parental supervision tools in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Meta says it plans to expand the service to more countries later this year.

AI Will Flag, Humans Will Verify

Meta explained that its AI system is trained to identify conversations in which a teenager clearly mentions suicide or self-harm. However, the company emphasized that AI alone will not trigger parental notifications.

Instead, every conversation flagged by the AI will first be reviewed by a human team. Only after this manual verification will an alert be sent to parents, reducing the chances of false alarms.

Meta said it recognizes that such notifications can be distressing for families, which is why human review has been included as an extra layer of accuracy and care.

More Safety Tools for Parents

The latest update adds to Meta's existing parental safety features. Parents using Instagram's supervision tools can already view the topics their teenagers have discussed with Meta AI over the past week, giving them greater insight into their child's AI interactions while maintaining a focus on safety.