Facebook has reached the lives of people in a very indulging way that people even post the very minute details of their life and their activities as status. More the ¾ of the American population use Facebook and most of them are avid users. A close watch on the posts and pictures shared by people can easily give you an insight into what is happening in their life. Individuals who are facing pressures in family life will be posting related contents. Some posts might evoke suspicions in your mind about the person's intentions. Studies have revealed that the suicide rates have gone up in recent years, and most of these are women and middle-aged people. President Obama had declared September 10 to be World Suicide Prevention Day. He addressed the issue of increased suicidal rates and asked people to reach out to the friends and family who are facing mental concerns.
How Facebook helped Ms. Simons Save her Friend
Way back in 2014, Carrie Simons who was a real estate broker saw a weird Facebook status update on her friend's timeline. It just said, “ Thank you for everyone who tried to help me.” This struck some suspicion in Ms. Simon's mind, and it seemed to her like a suicide note on Facebook. She immediately got into action and informed another friend who alarmed the police in the area and later the friend was found by the police while she was about to kill herself with a pistol. Ms. Simmons timely action had saved a life.
Facebook Realizing the Need for Direct Action Against Suicides
With over 1.65 billion Facebook users posting several notes on their status, Facebook has taken a personal move to act against suicides. It announced recently its new tools to prevent self-death which will be one of a kind action by any technology company.
The suicide prevention tools will allow the users to keep a check on friends who post statuses of self-harm or suicide. The special team at Facebook will take charge of the case once a person tags another post as suicidal. The suicide prevention team will take over the case and keep a close watch on the tagged person statuses on Facebook. The person will also be communicated about the risks of suicide and also suicide prevention steps.
Facebook Suicide Prevention Team
The team consists of Jennifer Guadagno, who a researcher is the lead person of the suicide prevention project by Facebook. She states that Facebook has become a principal means of communication between family members and friends, and it naturally fits to know a person's actions from his posts. The other core members include Vanessa Callison-Burch, Valerie Chao, who has designed the product and Oksana Timonen who is the lead engineer. There are also other engineers and researchers forming the technical support staff.
Problems faced by Facebook
Facebook is trying a different attempt to play the role of an arbitrator and there have been concerns raised as people may feel that the social media company is indulging into their privacy matters. Facebook has been facing several questions of breaching user privacy. The user research methodology went a major transformation following the issue raised over the social media giant. The company was caught up in arguments over utilizing the news feed feature to manipulate the user. This move by Facebook has to be done rather carefully as people do not want Facebook and its team to play the role of a Big Brother looking into their posts and keeping track of their activities, especially when there is no concern of suicidal attempt.
Facebook, revealed that more than 1/3 rd of the posts were negative emotions and on close watch, it could be found that these were countered by words of empathy from friends on Facebook. The company claimed its liability to make it possible for its users to help others in need.
How Facebook Suicide Prevention Tool Will Work
The Facebook posts will have a small drop down menu on the side that will allow people to report a post. This was earlier available to only some users. The user can tag any post to be doubtful of suicide or self-harm. The Facebook Community team has its members around the world placed globally. They work 24X7 checking the flagged posts in real time, and any flagging will be attended to by the team.
It is the same team that oversees objectionable content, but they have been given special training to see to matters of suicidal and self-harm notes. Special instruction has been given to the team to check quickly and verify records tagged as suicidal.
Mode of Action
The person who tags a note as suicidal has some pattern of actions made available by Facebook. The user who indicates the harmful status can send a message directly to the distressed person, and there are some template messages provided by Facebook for the ease of the users. The user can also type in his letter. A mutual friend can also be contacted through the drop down option to help in solving the matter of concern.
Once a status is tagged as suicidal, Facebook Suicide prevention team will promptly review the matter and if found that the person is in distress he/she is sent a help note. The note will have the option to talk to a friend, contact the helpline where the member in trouble can talk with people who will contribute in walking out of the situation and even view tips to face life. The newsfeed will also contain resources and motivating content to help the person face the situation.
Facebook even reported that the move towards a suicide prevention had been planned ten years back. The company has been running test modules in several countries over the time in collaboration with other organizations like Save.org and Forefront. Several other nonprofit organizations have shown their support to Facebook in their new venture trying to help people save their lives.
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