The popular social media site has announced it is introducing the notifications for Australian parents in the coming weeks.
People using Instagram's supervision tools will receive an alert if their child repeatedly searches for terms relating to suicide or self-harm.
The message will be received via an in-app notification, as well as email, SMS or WhatsApp, explaining the searches have occurred while providing expert-backed guidance on how to have a conversation about it with their children.
Other mental health searches such as anxiety or depression will not on their own trigger an alert, with the notification set to a high-risk threshold.
The notification will apply to parents of teens aged 16 and 17, as children aged 15 and under are subject to Australia's blanket social media ban.
"Rather than blanket bans, we believe tools like this demonstrate the value of giving parents more visibility and partnership online where safeguards, supervision features, and crisis interventions can be put in place," a statement from Instagram reads.
Tech giant Meta, which owns Instagram and other platforms including Facebook, is building similar parental notifications for teens' conversations with AI, which is set to launch later this year.
The new alerts will also become available for parents in the US, UK, and Canada before being rolled out more broadly.
Australia's social media ban for under-16s kicked in last December, with tech companies facing fines of up to $49.5 million if they fail to comply with the age restriction laws.
Ten platforms are subject to the ban including Google's YouTube, Meta's Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as well as Snapchat, Reddit and TikTok.
The eSafety Commission will track thousands of families to assess the impact of the laws on teenagers.
It will examine how the age restrictions are being implemented, in addition to identifying any unintended consequences to guide future decision making.
Preliminary findings are expected to be released later this year, with further reports to follow through next year and 2028.
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