Facebook Implements Suicide Risk Alert System
Yeah you read it right! The biggest social networking website Facebook, which has over 500 million users, has added a feature that might help in rescuing someone from attempting suicide!
Facebook added this feature in conjunction with Samaritans, a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone who is distressed or is at a risk of suicide. The Samaritans started charity work in UK & Ireland. But in the recent years, it has expanded its work to many countries including United States and India.
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crazyengineers.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F03%2FReport-Suicidal-Content.jpg&hash=39e12dfcf2a9dc8658b6a75c5e66c0d3)
Many instances have been reported in recent times when people actually wrote about the emotional stress they are going through and their intention to commit suicide through status updates on Facebook. Suicide cases are rising enormously.
Recently, a charity worker named Simone Back died due to drug overdose and had written about it in her Facebook status. Her friends living nearby didn’t take the update seriously and those living far away tried to contact her but failed to do so.
Anyone who is worried about a friend can fill a form here (#-Link-Snipped-#) detailing their concerns and this form is submitted to the moderators. The form asks for the URL leading to the suicidal content, full name of the person and some other information that might help.
Facebook said that it had always been its policy to notify police if a user was at risk of imminent bodily harm. They had a trial of this feature for three months and according to Samaritans, most of the received reports were genuine. Whenever the report is made, Facebook moderators assess whether they need to call the police immediately or forward the report to Samaritans, according to the severity of the report.
Samaritans have clarified that the feature is not added because of any particular case, but to raise awareness among the people. This feature will surely help in reduction of suicidal cases like that of Simone Back. Also, distressed people can get a proper help.
It’s a very good move by Facebook. It said that the suicide-related alerts will be escalated to the highest level, so that Facebook's user operations team can give a proper attention to such reports and act immediately.
How to raise an alarm: The direct link to the form is given above. Go to “Account†at the right corner of the Facebook page and go to help centre. Write “suicide†as the query and you will get search results. There you will be able to find many area specific links and at the bottom of those is the one given above that takes you to the form.
Facebook added this feature in conjunction with Samaritans, a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone who is distressed or is at a risk of suicide. The Samaritans started charity work in UK & Ireland. But in the recent years, it has expanded its work to many countries including United States and India.
Many instances have been reported in recent times when people actually wrote about the emotional stress they are going through and their intention to commit suicide through status updates on Facebook. Suicide cases are rising enormously.Recently, a charity worker named Simone Back died due to drug overdose and had written about it in her Facebook status. Her friends living nearby didn’t take the update seriously and those living far away tried to contact her but failed to do so.
Anyone who is worried about a friend can fill a form here (#-Link-Snipped-#) detailing their concerns and this form is submitted to the moderators. The form asks for the URL leading to the suicidal content, full name of the person and some other information that might help.
Facebook said that it had always been its policy to notify police if a user was at risk of imminent bodily harm. They had a trial of this feature for three months and according to Samaritans, most of the received reports were genuine. Whenever the report is made, Facebook moderators assess whether they need to call the police immediately or forward the report to Samaritans, according to the severity of the report.
Samaritans have clarified that the feature is not added because of any particular case, but to raise awareness among the people. This feature will surely help in reduction of suicidal cases like that of Simone Back. Also, distressed people can get a proper help.
It’s a very good move by Facebook. It said that the suicide-related alerts will be escalated to the highest level, so that Facebook's user operations team can give a proper attention to such reports and act immediately.
How to raise an alarm: The direct link to the form is given above. Go to “Account†at the right corner of the Facebook page and go to help centre. Write “suicide†as the query and you will get search results. There you will be able to find many area specific links and at the bottom of those is the one given above that takes you to the form.
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