United Kingdom, Feb. 26 -- Instagram will alert parents if their teenager repeatedly searches for self-harm or suicide content on the platform.

It is the first time that the app's parent company Meta will proactively alert parents using Instagram's child supervision tools to searches by their child on the platform for harmful material - instead of blocking searches and directing users to external sources of help.

Parents and teenagers who are enrolled in Instagram's Teen Accounts experience, which aims to protect young users from exposure to harmful content, will be notified about the alerts from next week.

However, suicide prevention charity the Molly Rose Foundation has criticised Meta's measures and fears they "could do more harm th...