Samaritans app monitors Twitter feeds for suicide warnings

A suicide prevention charity in the UK - Samaritans - has launched a new Twitter app that enables users to monitor the accounts of their friends for distressing messages and offer guidance supplied by the charity. Called Samaritans Radar, the new web app is activated by visiting the Radar website, and once linked to your account will then send you alerts when someone you follow on Twitter posts something deemed worrying. This is done by Samaritans’ specially created algorithm, or software, that identifies words and phrases that could suggest depression or suicidal thoughts.

We know that people struggling to cope often go online looking for support, however, there is still so much we need to learn about why this happens and how we can make the online environment safer for vulnerable people.

Joe Ferns, executive director of policy, research and development at Samaritans

Mr Ferns said that this new tool would help because rather than placing them directly in front of an organisation, friends can step in to offer help first. “By not addressing this issue we run the risk of shutting these discussions down and driving them underground.

Social media gets a lot of bad press, but we believe there is good to be done.

Professor Jonathan Scourfield, from the school of social sciences at Cardiff University

Technology suicide app