The online hangout where millions of people gather every day, surrounded by their "friends", is being equipped with tools to prevent suicide attempts that may be foreshadowed by posts. Facebook in the United States will be able to report posts that indicate despair to the service, notify friends or even specialized centers for help, it was announced at a conference held recently at the company's headquarters.
The company partnered with Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention, an organization based at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington.
The purpose of their collaboration is to develop a mechanism that gives any friend who sees a suicide post the ability to take decisive action for it: from sending a message to show concern, to forward the puzzling post to another friend or relative, to call for help or to contact specific services.
Facebook will evaluate the report of a member's possible suicidal tendencies and the next time they log in to the service, the author of the post will see suggestions for help, even videos from the organization Now Matters Now , with the aim of preventing them from committing suicide. In fact, researchers reached out to people who have attempted suicide to evaluate the system before it was officially adopted by Facebook.
Source: tech.in.gr
