Facebook Introduces New Feature To Help Prevent Suicide

By Melony Roy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With a network of more than one billion members, Facebook is expanding its suicide prevention features. 

Facebook has teamed up with a number of suicide prevention organizations in hopes of helping people online prevent their friends from committing suicide.

"Every 12.9 minutes we lose a person to suicide. Its the second leading cause in death in school age children," says Catherine Siciliano, Associate Area Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

"We know how connected our kids are to social media so this gives us another avenue another way of identify those who are at risk"

When someone sees a post that suggests its author might be considering suicide, they can click on a dropdown menu and report the post to Facebook.

The person who flags the post will see a screen with links that allows them to message the potentially suicidal person, contact another Facebook friend for support or connect with a trained professional at a suicide hotline.

The new features will roll out to all Facebook users over the next couple of months.

For more information, click here.