Instagram Is Prohibiting More Content Related To Suicide And Self-Harm

Instagram is banning more kinds of images related to suicide or self-harm following a public protest that the company hasn’t made enough effort to protect vulnerable teenagers from encountering such graphic images.

In particular, the platform will stop allowing fictional depictions of these actions, which include graphic images, memes, and drawings from comics and films. In addition, Instagram will remove images that may not depict suicide or self-harm but instead feature associated methods or materials. Also, accounts that share such content won’t appear in search as well as other parts in the app.

Instagram made efforts to address suicide and self-harm content on its platform after a British teenager committed suicide in 2017. She went on Instagram to post content about suicide and depression, which led her family to blame her death on the social network.

The social firm said that it’s working to balance between protecting teens from harmful content and letting other users share their own mental health experiences.

On Sunday, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said in a blog post that:

At the same time, users also go on the platform to share their struggles with mental health issues, which offers online support for those with similar problems, according to Mosseri. Preventing them from sharing such content may also worsen their issues.

In February, the photo-sharing app prohibited graphic images of self-harm like cutting, saying that it would leave content like photos of healed scars out from search recommendations, the explore tab, and hashtags. Within the first three months since the change, the social network added sensitivity screens, decreased the visibility of, and removed over 834,000 content pieces, according to Mosseri's statement in a blog post.

The executive vowed in February that the firm would take more actions so that vulnerable users won't see content that promotes suicide or self-harm.

Although the platform has made more efforts to do this, some users still found content related to suicide, BBC News reported. Instagram was praised by several mental health advocates like the Mental Health Foundation, for its latest move but is urged to do more.

A Monday tweet from the Mental Health Foundation said that they wanted to see the company effort in supporting distressed users that are posting this kind of content. Meanwhile, Mosseri signaled that the company will do more in the future than just barring such content.