The Cooney Center was honored to be invited to PRIVO’s inaugural Children’s Digital Privacy Summit in Los Angeles in January. We don’t have the opportunity to connect with those in the privacy and compliance world as much as we would like, so it was extremely valuable to learn about ins and outs of the challenging environment that companies are navigating. We were glad to be able to offer an aspirational reminder to attendees of what a positive digital world for kids might look like, and why it is so important that we all work together to build one.

Michael Preston kicked things off with a keynote outlining why businesses and policymakers should help to create digital experiences that prioritize children’s well-being, and why kids should be a part of creating those experiences: “Mostly our conversation today has been about kids as the downstream recipients of decisions made by adults on their behalf,” Michael pointed out to the audience. “One challenge that we devote a lot of attention to is that kids’ unique perspectives are mostly ignored in the development of the products they will use.”

Michael Preston at the PRIVO Children’s Digital Privacy Summit (January 24, 2024)

Michael then moderated a session in which I participated with Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov (Sr. Corporate Counsel, digital games, metaverse and child safety, the LEGO Group) and Stephanie Reich (Professor of Education, University of California, Irvine) to explore what “good looks like” and how we can design better digital experiences leveraging the RITEC concept of designing for children’s well-being.

Sarah Jacobstein, Stephanie Reich, and Elizabeth Milovidov in conversation with Michael Preston at the PRIVO Children’s Digital Privacy Summit.

I explained that the RITEC initiative invited kids around the world to share how they defined well-being in their own lives. Some of their answers were different from what adults might say. For example, safety meant “feeling safe” and that they belonged and were welcomed when they entered a digital space.

Elizabeth shared how the LEGO Group approaches working designing for children’s well-being into the company’s policies and practices, including educating employees and implementing design requirements in guidance and contracts with partners.

And Stephanie described how design choices really do have an impact on children. She shared examples from children in her research and how they felt happy, empowered, and competent when digital experiences offered open-ended play that allowed them to make decisions and control their own journey within a game.

After our sessions, many event attendees told us that they felt energized by our message. In the day-to-day struggle to ensure that a company’s digital products for children comply with safety and privacy requirements, it is good to hear a reminder of who these products are being built for, why we must build them well, and that each of us has a part to play in creating the digital world that we want for children.

Video from Michael’s keynote and the panel, Building a Positive Digital World for Kids—Together, can be found on the PRIVO website.

In today’s rapidly evolving world of youth and digital media, it is crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and discover innovative ways to cater to the needs of children, tweens, and teens. At BeMe Health, we are using media to connect and support Gen Z and Gen Alpha wellness, drawing inspiration from the Cooney Center’s recent research on tweens and teens to create the BeMe app, a mobile mental health platform designed to improve teen well-being by bringing together the best aspects of digital media, live support, and clinical intervention. We are also committed to making our tools as accessible and impactful as possible by including teenagers in the design process of the app and its features.

Our Teen Advisory Board (TAB), featuring 166 teens representing diverse genders, ethnicities, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and living in rural, suburban, and urban areas across the U.S., is key to our understanding of our audience. In addition to meetings, we have weekly online co-design sessions where our product team collaborates with TAB members, both shaping and playtesting new features to ensure our app appeals to a wide range of young users.

The TAB members provide valuable feedback on app features, their thoughts on how technology affects their mental health, and how our app can support them. They also share their insights on being a teenager in 2024 and provide us with cultural intelligence to ensure our app resonates with young people.

Bridging the Gap: Using Supportive Media™ For Personal Growth

Our goal at BeMe Health is to improve teenagers’ mental health and overall well-being in the BeMe app. Our two-pronged approach involves using Supportive Media™—a combination of digital media and clinically validated content— and human connection, such as live coaching from trained counselors. This “tech and touch” teen-centric mobile approach combines digital media, care activities, live support, and clinical intervention to empower teens. If more intensive help is needed, 24/7 crisis support and clinical linkage to therapy and medication management are also available.

At BeMe, we’re supporting teen wellness through media that’s not just engaging but also rigorously vetted. Our clinical team collaborates on BeMe Original videos, BeMe Care Activities, ASMR, quizzes, playlists, and puzzles, ensuring every type of our media content is rooted in solid behavioral health science. This commitment to expert validation distinguishes us from the unchecked mental health content on social media.

We stay in tune with what’s really going on in teens’ lives through real-time feedback from our BeMe Coaches, trending searches in the BeMe app, and from our Teen Advisory Board. This approach helps us craft BeMe Original content that hit home on topics like prom stress, holiday blues, college applications, or the latest in celebrity mental health news, resulting in content that’s not just relevant but also carefully vetted for its mental health benefits.

Take, for instance, the response to Stephen “tWitch” Boss’s passing in December 2022. Recognizing its significant impact on teens, our BeMe Studios team swiftly produced and curated BeMe Originals focused on grief, providing immediate support and offering live 1:1 coaching to those affected.

Insights from experts featured on our BeingMe podcast are transformed into snackable BeMe Brain Bites in the app. Moreover, our summer BeMe Teen Creator program encouraged peers to share content, enhancing the platform’s reliability and relatability. Our approach also includes identifying and clinically reviewing teen-relevant content from third parties for inclusion in BeMe TV and our app, ensuring a mix of curated and in-house content that speaks directly to teen experiences.

BeMe’s wellness-by-design ethos means our content isn’t just made with care—it’s expert-led, teen-approved, and clinically validated, ensuring we’re a trusted resource for young people navigating life’s challenges.

We designed BeMe TV as a supportive and inclusive media platform that merges teen interest in mental health content with clinically validated guidance to help young people safely navigate their emotional health and support their self-directed approach to wellness.

According to our Stanford Evaluation Study, 90% of teens who watched BeMe TV content found it helpful, while 84% reported that it boosted their self-esteem.

Teens from our advisory board and those included in user interviews expressed positive feedback on the content and coaching aspects of the BeMe app. One mentioned it “helps me a lot to be a better person, express my feelings, and handle anxiety and depression. I love it so much. My coach is amazing.” Another observed personal growth, noting she’s “becoming a more loving, kind person.” 

The app’s impact extends to future outlooks, with a teen appreciating the BeMe Safety Plan tool: “I love the safety plan, it really provides a way for us to remind our future selves of things to be grateful [for] in the future. This app gives me hope and motivation for the good things to come.”

Derek E. Baird, M.Ed., serves as the Chief Youth Officer at BeMe Health and is the accomplished writer and producer of the BeingMe: A Teen Mental Health Podcast, which garnered two 2023 Signal Awards. With a rich career spanning over 25 years in children’s media and educational technology, Derek has earned recognition, including the Disney Inventor Award, for his numerous contributions to the industry. He is the author of ‘The Gen Z Frequency,’ his expertise is further showcased through various peer-reviewed articles covering various topics, ranging from designing children’s media and exploring emerging educational technologies to online learning design, youth cultures, and digital safety. 

Dr. Nicoletta Tessler is a clinical psychologist and accomplished senior executive with a +20-year career of repeated success in building and leading cutting-edge behavioral health care with a deep understanding of strategy, domain knowledge, and business operations. Nicki is a high-profile thought leader, combining rapid and strategic growth with managing the operational and financial demands of a large book of behavioral health businesses. She is a proven difference-maker with an unwavering sense of purpose and a fierce passion for reinventing the field. She is a mother of two fabulous teenage daughters and bullish about modeling for them the importance of setting audacious goals, including being CEO and co-founder of BeMe Health by aiming to position BeMe as the most trusted resource in emotional health for teens.

As digital games become ever more embedded in our daily lives, game designers and developers have the potential to create a positive impact through their work. This growing influence prompts us to consider a pivotal question: how can we navigate the ethics of digital game creation and be mindful of the impact that design choices have on players’ experiences, societal values, and most crucially, the well-being of the younger generation?

Across a two-day conference that drew interest from over 600 people around the world, Ethical Games brought together an audience of researchers and game industry professionals to discuss issues around the ethical design and development of digital games. A primary goal of the conference was to make research about video games more accessible to game industry professionals.

Download the publication here.

I was honored to co-present our recent work to guide designers and developers of digital technology for children, inspired by the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project’s child-centric well-being framework. The RITEC framework, which comprises eight components (competence, emotional regulation, empowerment, social connection, creativity, safety and security, diversity, equity and inclusion, and self-actualization), outlines how digital experiences can impact child well-being. By exploring the cognitive and developmental science underpinning the RITEC framework, we shared evidence-based, practical recommendations for placing children’s well-being at the forefront of digital game design.

For example, creativity is an essential aspect of children’s wellbeing. Research points to creativity as necessary for self-expression, including inventing and creating something new, or solving problems. Creativity also engages other skills, like risk-taking, perseverance, and flexible thinking, which are crucial for achieving one’s goals. Fortunately, creativity can be strengthened, much like a muscle. Digital play has the potential to promote creativity in children by providing a space for imaginative thinking, problem-solving, and exploration. We prompted the audience, including game professionals, to consider how the design of digital games can encourage children to imagine and role-play, push boundaries, try new things, and/or select from new and existing ideas to solve a problem or create something new.

We shared additional recommendations for promoting other aspects of child well-being, like diversity, equity, inclusion, and social connection.

At the end of our presentation, we had some time for questions from the audience. Attendees were curious about who we meant by “children” and asked for a specific age range, hinting at some of the complexities involved in designing for children. Childhood covers a broad age spectrum —for the purposes of this guide, we consider anyone under 18 as a child, consistent with UNICEF’s definition—and consists of distinct developmental stages, each presenting unique abilities, challenges, and opportunities shaping how children interact with digital technology. Our ideas and recommendations aim to foster the design of digital experiences that promote well-being for children across all ages, developmental stages, and backgrounds.

Daniel Alonso is a PhD candidate in Applied Developmental Psychology at Fordham University and was an intern for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in 2023. Broadly, he is interested in understanding what children think about themselves and the world around them. His research primarily focuses on topics like gender development in childhood and the role of digital technologies on children’s healthy development.