India, Feb. 26 -- Instagram on Thursday announced a new feature strengthening teen protection, saying it will start alerting parents if their children repeatedly search for terms related to suicide or self-harm in a short period of time.

These alerts will, however, only go to parents who have enrolled for the app's parental supervision program, the Associated Press reported.

This comes even as the social media platform's parent company, Meta, is in the midst of two trials over mental health harms to children. Instagram already blocks such content from showing up on teenagers' accounts as search results, and directs people to use helplines instead.

The parental alerts will be sent through email, text or WhatsApp, based on the contact in...