Faced with desperate publications and imprints of ill-being, Facebook wants to act. The social network has indeed announced that it will extend its “anti-suicide” function to all of its users. Until now, this function was only available to users in the United States and English-speaking 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 reportsFacebook said in a post on the page.Facebook safety“. Reporting will be done using a drop-down menu, in the same way as for reporting inappropriate content. For their part, the person who posted a disturbing message reported by their friends will receive a notification indicating: “Can we help you? Someone who has seen your post thinks you may be going through a rough patch. If you need help, we’d love to help.“At the end of this message will be displayed a list of choices for the Facebook user concerned: talk with a friend, contact a telephone support or even get tips and advice.
Facebook involved in the risk of depression?
Facebook hopes to help reduce the number of suicides around the world. An aspiration that compensates for the fact that its use could cause the appearance of depressive symptomsbecause being exposed to the happiness of one’s virtual friends could promote depression. Similarly, the number of “likes” received exerts an influence – sometimes negative – on the adolescent behavior.
In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated thatone person died of suicide every 40 secondsin the world.
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