Faced with desperate and unhappy publications, Facebook wishes to act. The social network has indeed announced to extend its “anti-suicide” function to all of its users. Until now, this function was only available to users in the United States and Anglo-Saxon countries. An alert button will soon allow each Facebook subscriber to report to the network the publication of a friend that he considers worrying in terms of risk of suicide or self-harm.
A notification that offers help
“With the help of these new tools, if someone posts something on Facebook that worries you, you can contact them directly, or you can report it to us. We have teams around the world, working 24/7 to review these reports.“Facebook said in a post on the”Facebook safety“. The report will be done through a drop-down menu, in the same way as for reporting inappropriate content. For his part, the person who has posted a disturbing message reported by his friends will receive a notification indicating:”Can we help you? Someone who has seen your post thinks you may be going through a rough time. If you need any help, we would love to help.“At the end of this message, a list of choices will be displayed for the Facebook user concerned: talk with a friend, contact a telephone support or get tips and advice.
Facebook involved in the risk of depression?
Facebook hopes to help reduce the number of suicides in the world. An aspiration that compensates for the fact that its use could cause the appearance of depressive symptoms, because being exposed to the happiness of your virtual friends could promote depression. Likewise, the number of “likes” received would exert an influence – sometimes negative – on the adolescent behavior.
In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated thatsomeone died of suicide every 40 secondsin the world.
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