New Delhi: Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) safety feature to protect teenagers’ mental health and prevent self-harm. This new tool will work in conjunction with Meta AI. If a teen shares sensitive information, such as suicide or self-harm, during a conversation with the Meta AI chatbot, the feature will immediately activate and alert parents.
Balancing privacy and security
Teens often treat AI chatbots like friends and share their concerns with them. Keeping this in mind, Meta designed this feature to ensure both children’s safety and privacy.
Chat scanning and review: The AI system scans conversations between teens and the chatbot. Any critical situations detected are investigated by the team before an alert is sent.
Limited information sharing: Parents will only be provided with alerts and expert guidance on how to deal with the situation; they will not be shown the child’s entire personal chat.
In which countries has this facility been started?
This new Meta safety feature has been made live in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. To take advantage of this feature, parents will need to use Instagram Parental Supervision. The company aims to roll it out in other countries, including India, by the end of this year. With the growing engagement with AI chatbots in the digital age, Meta’s initiative will prove helpful in alerting parents in a timely manner.
Emergency services will also be available
The company has also clarified that it is working on another advanced safety feature. Under this, if a conversation with Meta AI determines that a person, whether a teenager or an adult, is at serious risk of self-harm or suicide, emergency services will be contacted directly. According to Meta, last year more than 19,000 such cases were escalated to security agencies worldwide, allowing first responders to reach those at risk in a timely manner.