Facebook’s New Suicide Alert System

With attention brought forth of the growing number of teenagers committing suicide in the U.S., Facebook has decided to create a Suicide Alert System to help prevent users who have showed signs of intentions.

Facebook has paired with Samaritans to establish a form which others can fill out and submit about their friends online who show signs of possible suicide. The form has of sections which include; full name, details of their concerns, the URL (web address) of the potentially harmful post, and certain networks that person is associated with. From there the social site’s moderators review the material and forward the warning on to the police.

Facebook’s policy has reportidly always been to notify police if bodily harm may come to someone. However, without this system, numerous posts have already surpassed the site. In the past, Users have announced intentions of suicide or harming themselves without any action taken by the company.

This new alert system has reportidly been functioning without any publicity, but as the growth of teenage suicide numbers continue, faith with the system may help.