MANILA, Philippines – Facebook announced Thursday, October 16, a new system it has put in place on the social networking site that would allow users to let others know they were safe following a disaster. 

The Facebook announcement of Safety Check notes that the new system will enable Facebook users to let friends and family know they are safe, check on others in an affected area, and mark friends as safe.

Only a user’s friends will see the status updates and comments shared using Safety Check.

The tool automatically activates when a natural disaster occurs, and if a user is in an affected area, a Facebook notification will ask if the user is safe. This is done by “looking at the city you have listed in your profile, your last location if you’ve opted in to the Nearby Friends product, and the city where you are using the Internet.”

Users can mark if they’re in the location or not, and then inform others that they’re safe using a notification update.

To check on friends, users will also get a notification from friends who have marked themselves as safe. Clicking the notification brings users to a Safety Check bookmark, showing a list of friends’ updates.

Watch this introductory video on Safety Check from Facebook:

– Rappler.com