Social Media: Hopes and Fears about the Suicide Prevention Field's Scalable Future
In this course, Dr. Dan Reidenberg explains how social media can both amplify risk and unlock rapid pathways to help. He balances headlines with data, shows how platform tools (e.g., reporting, resource prompts) actually work at scale, and maps practical, ethics-informed steps clinicians can use to engage youth online—today and in the near-AI future.
About this course
<p>In this course, suicide prevention expert Dr. Dan Reidenberg introduces a grounded, forward-looking view of social media’s role in suicide prevention. He examines how platform moderation, reporting systems and safety-by-design interact at a massive scale, and where AI/NLP can responsibly triage risk language. Clinicians leave with concrete tactics – safe-messaging online, resource linking (e.g., crisis lines/988 equivalents) – and decision points for when to flag, report, or engage to support help-seeking.</p>
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