Algorithms to Advocacy: Youth Mental Health in the AI Era

By Dr. Marina Badillo-Diaz and Caren Howard

This month’s blog is the result of a collaboration between Dr. Marina Badillo-Diaz, social worker, educator, and founder of The AI Social Worker, and Caren Howard, a national leader in mental health policy advocacy, education, and political strategy. Together, we share a commitment to advancing youth mental health, promoting equity, and ensuring that all communities are prepared to navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into the daily lives of young people, we recognize the need for conversations that bring together perspectives of stakeholders in mental health, education, policy, and technology to better understand AI's impact on youth well-being as a public health issue.

We wrote this blog because AI is already shaping how young people learn, communicate, seek information, form relationships, and access support. While these technologies offer new opportunities for connection, learning, and accessibility, they also raise important questions about mental and environmental health, privacy, bias, social connection, and equity. Our goal is not to promote fear of technology, but to encourage thoughtful dialogue about how communities can support young people in an increasingly AI-driven world. We believe that youth, families, educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers all have a role to play in ensuring that technology strengthens human well-being, promotes justice, and supports healthy development while keeping humanity at the center.

Why This Conversation Matters Now

AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday life for young people. From social media feeds and educational platforms to chatbots and mental health apps, AI is shaping how youth learn, communicate, seek information, and increasingly, how they experience support. While these technologies offer exciting opportunities for innovation and access, they also introduce new questions about mental health, relationships, privacy, and overall well-being.

As advocates committed to supporting youth and communities, we believe this moment requires thoughtful dialogue. Our collaboration brings together perspectives from social work, mental health advocacy, and community engagement to explore how AI is influencing youth experiences and what we can do to ensure technology serves human well-being rather than undermines it.

At its core, this conversation is not simply about technology. It is about young people, their development, their relationships, and their right to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Understanding the AI Landscape Youth Are Navigating

Many young people interact with AI every day, often without realizing it. Recommendation systems determine which videos appear on social media platforms, algorithms shape search results, and automated systems influence what content receives visibility. AI is no longer a future technology. It is woven into the digital environments youth regularly inhabit.

Beyond social media, AI is becoming increasingly common in schools, mental health applications, virtual assistants, gaming platforms, and online communities. Students may encounter AI-powered tutoring systems, writing assistants, personalized learning tools, and automated feedback systems. At the same time, many youth are experimenting with AI chatbots and virtual companions for conversation, entertainment, advice, and emotional support.

These technologies can create meaningful benefits, but they also influence how young people perceive themselves, others, and the world around them. Because AI often operates invisibly in the background, many youth may not recognize how significantly it shapes their experiences and decision-making.

Youth Mental Health in the Digital and AI Era

Youth mental health challenges have become a growing concern worldwide. Rising rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and emotional distress have prompted educators, clinicians, policymakers, and families to examine the role that digital environments play in adolescent well-being.

The constant connectivity of online life can make it difficult for young people to disengage and rest. Scientists agree that sleep is key to healthy brain development, and sleep deficiency leads to increased risk of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. A study of 12,000 pre-teens who slept less than nine hours nightly had more problems with mood and thinking than those who had the age-recommended nine hours of sleep (Yu et al., 2024). Unfortunately, shorter sleep duration has become more common as adolescents spend more and more time using digital tools. This has long-term effects on brain development and mood regulation. 

Algorithm-driven content can intensify social comparison and curated portrayals of life, which may negatively affect self-esteem and emotional well-being among youth (Rousseau et al., 2022). Mental Health America reports that 42% of screeners in 2024 were under age 18, and among youth, low self-esteem, body image, and loneliness were among the most common concerns at screening (Mental Health America, 2025).

To be clear, AI can both support and disrupt well-being. Some young people report using AI tools to process emotions, seek advice, or access information they might not otherwise receive. Several AI mental health tools even engage families together to teach and assess emotional regulation and healthy conflict resolution skills. Yet, research also suggests that disparities in access to traditional mental health services often lead youth from lower-income communities and marginalized populations to rely more heavily on technology as a source of information and support, regardless of the intent of the technology. While social and companion AI tools may fill important gaps in knowledge, they should not be viewed as substitutes for accessible, culturally responsive human care. Especially because mental health expertise is most often kept behind paywalls that large language models or conversational AI tools available to the public free of charge do not have access to.

The best AI tools are designed for safety and healthy boundaries in both online and offline interactions. Several mental health AI platforms encourage or require the youngest users to take a break from the digital tool after 10 minutes of use. This approach balances digital reality with reality in a healthy way that promotes in-person peer connection, longer sleep duration, and other activities for young people to thrive. 

Why Young People Are Turning to AI for Support

The appeal of AI is understandable. AI tools are available 24 hours a day, provide immediate responses, and can feel nonjudgmental. For youth who may be hesitant to discuss personal concerns with parents, caregivers, teachers, or clinicians, AI can seem like a safer or easier place to start.

Many young people are also digital natives who have grown up interacting with technology. Engaging with AI often feels natural and familiar. During moments of loneliness, stress, or uncertainty, an AI chatbot may offer a sense of companionship or validation that appears comforting.

However, there is an important distinction between accessibility and relationship. While AI can simulate conversation and provide information, it cannot genuinely care, empathize, or share mutual human experiences. As reliance on AI grows, we must carefully consider how to preserve meaningful human relationships that remain essential to healthy development and mental well-being. 

Ethical Concerns and Risks

AI systems are not therapists, social workers, counselors, or trusted caregivers. Despite increasingly human-like interactions mirroring companionship and connection, these systems lack lived experience, moral judgment, accountability, and the ability to fully understand the complexities of human emotions and circumstances.

Significant concerns also exist regarding bias, privacy, humanitarian law violations, and misinformation. AI systems are trained on human-generated data and may reproduce existing inequities, stereotypes, and discriminatory patterns. Mental health and substance use-related information that might be useful in a crisis is often behind paywalls and not accessible when training large language models. This lack of information makes it difficult for AI tools to appropriately identify a mental health crisis, and since conversations do not have a human “in the loop,” AI tools often escalate rather than resolve problems. Many platforms collect extensive user data, raising important questions about surveillance, consent, and the protection of sensitive information.

Additional concerns include emotional dependency on AI companions, harmful or inaccurate advice, lack of transparency regarding how systems function, and disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities. We must also recognize broader societal considerations, including the environmental costs associated with large-scale AI systems and the global labor practices that often support their development.

From Algorithms to Advocacy

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into youth experiences, advocacy must remain central to the conversation. Technology decisions are never purely technical. They are social, ethical, and political decisions that affect real people and communities.

Youth voices must be included in discussions about AI design, implementation, and policy. Community participation and co-design approaches can help ensure that technology reflects the needs and values of those it serves. In assessing AI safety and quality, consider youth participatory action research, a co-design approach that leads with a youth-generated idea and includes support for youth to lead study design and evaluation.  

One of the most popular artificial intelligence bill topics in Congress currently is digital literacy for children and adolescents. These bills would designate federal resources for digital literacy in K-12 schools, provide for more training modules through the Federal Trade Commission’s Youville learning hub, and seek to equip adolescents with critical thinking skills for interacting on digital platforms. 

The good news is that many young people are already using their lived experience with digital tools to inform policy at the local, state, and federal levels. Young people are not simply users of technology; they are stakeholders whose lived experiences should inform decisions that affect their futures. Young adults are building resiliency skills to thrive in the digital world, and youth advocate Keegan Lee of North Carolina has created her own digital literacy curriculum to help parents and educators teach digital wellness! Adolescent and young adult advocates are encouraged to join efforts to inform policy through coalitions such as the Human-Like AI Coalition run by Young People’s Alliance (contact: mick@youngpeoplesalliance.org). 

Social workers, educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers have a critical role to play as ethical leaders. This includes promoting digital literacy, supporting critical thinking skills, implementing policies that promote transparency and accountability, and ensuring that AI systems are developed and deployed with equity and human dignity at the forefront. These leaders should feel confident in their ability to have conversations with elected officials to urge a focus on bringing policy up to speed with new technologies. As policymakers across the nation negotiate proposals to regulate and deregulate AI, the role of community members cannot be overstated.

The Role of Families, Schools, Communities, and Policymakers

Families, schools, and communities remain essential protective factors in young people's lives. While technology continues to evolve, trusted human relationships continue to be one of the strongest predictors of resilience and well-being.

Adults can support youth by fostering open conversations about AI, social media, and online experiences without judgment. Creating opportunities for dialogue helps young people critically evaluate the information they encounter and recognize when technology may be influencing their emotions, behaviors, or decision-making. It also builds trust that allows them comfort in sharing an inappropriate or uncertain suggestion online with a trusted caregiver to determine next steps.

Communities also play a vital role in developing supportive environments that promote mental health. Schools, mental health organizations, healthcare providers, researchers, and community leaders must collaborate to create holistic, culturally responsive approaches that support youth both online and offline. Promoting digital literacy, creating a welcoming environment that includes peer-to-peer support, and ensuring young people are aware of reasonable accommodations for disabilities (including for mental health differences) are just a few steps communities can take to support youth mental health. 

Policymakers are ultimately responsible for establishing a framework for AI systems that promotes the safest use. Several bills in Congress have been introduced to grow digital literacy in K-12 schools, create transparency in designing and developing foundational models to restrict bias and harm in AI tools, educate users about the risks of AI use, and more. The more community leaders and advocates share their experiences and uplift the experiences of young people with policymakers directly through calls, letters, op-eds, social media, and other media, the more pressure they will feel to ensure these policies will best serve their state or district. 

Collaboration Spotlight: Mental Health America

For more than a century, Mental Health America (MHA) has worked to promote mental wellness, prevent mental health conditions, and advance equitable access to care. Through education, advocacy, research, and community engagement, MHA continues to be a leading voice in shaping conversations about mental health in the United States.

As AI becomes more integrated into everyday life, MHA remains committed to examining both the opportunities and challenges these technologies present. This includes advocating for ethical innovation, supporting informed public dialogue, and ensuring that mental health considerations remain central in technology development and policy discussions. Read MHA’s Technology and Mental Health Report (2026) and sign up for MHA’s Advocacy Network to be alerted to send timely letters to federal policymakers.

Together, we hope to expand awareness, promote responsible technology use, and empower communities to actively participate in shaping a future where innovation supports mental health rather than compromises it.

Keeping Humanity at the Center

Artificial intelligence will continue to influence how young people learn, communicate, seek support, and understand themselves. The question is not whether AI will shape youth experiences as it already does. The more important question is how communities will respond to help grow access to what’s helpful while restricting any harm.

The future of youth mental health in the AI era depends on our collective commitment to ethics, equity, transparency, and human connection. Technology should be designed to support people and strengthen communities, and not replace relationships with peers, loved ones, or mental health professionals.  Nor should it be designed in a way that diminishes human dignity.

As professionals, families, educators, policymakers, advocates, and community members, we all have a role to play. By centering compassion, fairness, and human well-being, we can help ensure that AI becomes a tool that enhances mental health and flourishing rather than one that deepens existing challenges.

Technology should support humanity and mental health—not replace it.

The content in this blog was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed and edited by Dr. Marina Badillo-Diaz, LCSW, and Caren Howard to ensure accuracy, relevance, and integrity. Dr. Badillo-Diaz's and Ms. Howard’s expertise and insightful oversight have been incorporated to ensure the content in this blog meets the standards of professional social work practice. 

References

Mental Health America. (2026). Technology and mental health report. https://mhanational.org/technology-mental-health-report/

Mental Health America. (2025). Lessons from MHA’s screening and prevention program. https://mhanational.org/lessons-from-mha-screening-2025/

Rousseau, M. H., & colleagues. (2022). Social media and self-esteem. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45, 101304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101304

Yu, D. J., Wing, Y. K., Li, T. M. H., & Chan, N. Y. (2024). The impact of social media use on sleep and mental health in youth: A scoping review. Current Psychiatry Reports, 26(3), 104–119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-024-01481-9