US-based popular social media platform, Snap by partnering with the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council has launched its in-app mental health platform, ‘Here for You’, to improve the digital wellbeing of individuals and communities in general.
The platform launched in the UAE aims to support those Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis, or who are looking forward to learning more about these issues and how they can help friends who are dealing with them.
Starting on the World Mental Health Day, the ‘Here for You’ platform will promote the resources of the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council to Snapchatters when they search terms like anxiety, depression, and stress on the app, and are designed to be easily shared with close friends and family. Snapchatters can access the feature by typing ‘Here For You’ or words related to mental health crises in the Search field.
Jake Thomas Head – UAE Market Snap
“Snapchatters appreciate our commitment to privacy and how it allows people to be themselves, without the pressure of being judged by others. ‘Here For You’ was designed to empower our community with resources to help themselves, as well as friends and loved ones. Given that Snapchat reaches over 60 percent of 13-24-year-olds, and one in three 18-34-year-olds in the UAE, we believe that the most impactful way we can provide support and education for young people is in-app.”
Ms. Amal Al Blooshi, Director of UAE Digital Wellbeing at the Ministry of Community Development, said, “We are pleased to be partnering with Snap Inc. to launch ‘Here for You’ in the UAE, a technical precedent step that promotes the wellbeing of the community members in virtual space and positive digital wellbeing behavior. The step comes in line with our goals of enhancing digital wellbeing among individuals and the community and encouraging the purposeful use of technology. Through this partnership, we are bringing a resourceful tool that helps Snapchatters in pinpointing some mental health issues they might be facing and consequently addressing them to lead positive lives.”
The launching partner of the ‘Here For You’ portal will focus on three episodes provided by the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council covering topics on promoting the values of positive digital citizens, resources on online privacy and bullying prevention, Ms. Al Blooshi added.
Snapchat was designed in a way to empower Snapchatters to express themselves authentically and to support this ideology the new platform is also developed without public vanity metrics such as public comments and friend counts, and without an unmoderated newsfeed.
