Facebook : Creating Hope Through Action for Suicide Prevention and Awareness

Published: 2021-09-22 13:12:14 ET FB

September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, and people around the world focused on the theme of "Creating Hope Through Action." We know that this kind of collective action is needed to provide support online and offline for individuals considering suicide or self-harm. It's part of why, since 2006, we've worked with experts around the world to shape our policies, practices and products that support those expressing thoughts of suicide or self-harm on our platform.

For the past 15 years, these experts have helped Facebook become a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues and seek support from one another. Since our last update in 2020, many expert and advocate organizations throughout the world have made great strides in their efforts to support people at risk for or recovering from suicide and self-harm:

We've been tapping into the expertise of organizations like these to improve how we handle discussions of suicide and self-harm on our platform. In consultationsour Suicide and Self Injury Advisory Group, we've refined our policy for a specific type of content that doesn't break our rules, but may trivialize themes around suicide, death or depression. Experts agree it's important we allow these kinds of posts - to make sure people can talk about how they're feeling and friends and family have the chance to reach out - but that we need to balance this with protecting others from potentially upsetting content. Rather than removing it completely, we'll aim to not recommend this content in places like Explore on Instagram, making it harder to discover. We hope this helps strike this delicate balance, and we'll continue to consult with experts as research in this area develops.

We're also releasing our new Responding to Suicide Challenges toolkit. Developed in partnership with experts, the guide provides resources for parents, educators, youth and media on how to safely discuss viral suicide challenges, understand their impacts and reduce the sharing of challenges online. These resources were developed in partnership with Samaritans UK and 10 of our global suicide crisis response partners, including SAVE, Orygen, Embrace and Spunout, among others. The toolkit is available on the Safety Center resource pageand will be available in 20 languages.

The more we innovate and work together, the better we can support our community. In the year ahead, we'll continue to improve our technology, policies and partnerships relating to suicide and self-harm, keeping up with the latest research and trends to make our platform a safe and supportive place for everyone. To learn more, visit Facebook's suicide prevention hub.

Disclaimer

Facebook Inc. published this content on 22 September 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 22 September 2021 17:11:07 UTC.