Meta Will Notify Parents When Teens Discuss Self-Harm with Its AI Chatbot

Meta announced on Thursday that it will notify parents if their teen discusses suicide or self-harm with the company's Meta AI chatbot, @techcrunch reported. The company has built a dedicated AI system to identify such conversations and will manually review all flagged chats before sending alerts. If a teen's intent is ambiguous, Meta will err on the side of caution and alert the parent.

Australia, and Canada, with a global rollout planned by the end of the year. Meta already sends alerts when teens repeatedly search for suicide or self-harm terms on Instagram and allows parents to view topics discussed with Meta AI over the past week. Its Limited Content setting now applies to Meta AI as well.

Meta AI is trained to avoid sexual, romantic, or alcohol-related discussions with teens. The company will contact emergency services if any conversation with Meta AI, whether involving an adult or teen, suggests risk of suicide. Meta already contacts emergency services when users post content on Facebook or Instagram indicating suicide risk.