By Rebecca Bauer

At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) and shifting policy landscapes are redefining how young people receive care, The Jed Foundation’s 2025 Policy Summit, Meeting the Moment: Sustaining Progress in Youth Mental Health, brought together researchers, policymakers, and youth leaders to chart the path forward. Throughout the day, speakers examined how technology is reshaping both risk and opportunity, how states are embedding behavioral health into their strategic planning, and how evidence and youth voice must drive future systems of support. 

Setting the tone for the day, Dr. Zainab Okolo, JED’s Senior Vice President of Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations, reminded attendees that “progress must be built intentionally, structurally, and with sustainability in mind. We have to move beyond short-term interventions toward long-term systems of change.” From cutting-edge research on AI and adolescent well-being to frameworks for trauma-informed education and community resilience, the summit invited participants to look beyond crisis response toward a shared goal: building data-driven and human-centered systems that protect and promote youth mental health and prevent suicide.

The need to address AI’s impact on teens and young adults with deliberate and urgent action was clear from the first session. U.S. Representative Becca Balint (D-VT) opened the day with candid reflections on her own mental health journey. She then focused on what she’s hearing from educators, parents, and teens about how technology is shaping young people’s lives and on the role Congress can play in reducing tech’s harms. She didn’t mince words: “The algorithms are engineered for compulsive use rather than engagement.… You have companies making a tremendous amount of money off of our attention, and we have a right to say no, because it’s killing us.” 

Her message framed the conversations that followed: The mental health challenges facing young people are inseparable from the digital environment they inhabit. Meeting this moment will require accountability and collective resolve.

Speakers stressed that this moment offers a chance to learn from the past. As Danny Weiss, the chief advocacy officer at Common Sense Media put it: “After spending 20 years not regulating social media, we see where we ended up.” Our country failed to protect children from the perils of social media, allowing corporations to unleash these platforms unchecked, he said. Young people are already living with the consequences of technologies that evolved faster than the systems designed to protect them. Now we are seeing the same pattern play out with AI, and we cannot afford to leave the problems unaddressed. 

What can we do moving forward? Participants called for action on multiple fronts:

• Build safeguards. Develop ethical guardrails, regulatory standards, and accountability measures now, as AI continues to embed itself in everyday life and the risk to youth mental health continues to grow.
• Harness technology for connection. Use innovation to expand access, empathy, and care, and ensure that it does not deepen dependence or exploitation.
• Center youth as co-creators of the future. Ensure that the technologies shaping young people’s lives are informed by their voices, experiences, and needs.

Throughout the day, speakers emphasized the need to strengthen systems and prioritize prevention alongside innovation. 

Panelists highlighted how strong leadership and cross-sector collaboration — from Utah’s SAFE crisis response app and behavioral health plan to the Southern Regional Education Board’s counselor training programs — are turning ideas into impact. A youth panel reinforced the value of early awareness and open dialogue, with Dartmouth freshman Trace Ribble speaking about breaking stigma in rural communities and Rohan Satija, one of JED’s 2025 Student Voice of Mental Health Award honorees, describing Let’s Learn, his initiative to bring mental health literacy into classrooms.

Conversations about equity reminded attendees that real progress depends on understanding the conditions that shape mental health outcomes. It also means investing in community spaces such as libraries, parks, and civic institutions that promote well-being beyond clinical care.

These discussions painted a broad picture of the challenges and opportunities ahead, but the conversation repeatedly returned to one powerful theme: the rise of AI. It was the thread that tied together questions of access and prevention, underscoring how technology now shapes every part of young people’s lives. The choices made now will determine whether AI becomes a force that widens gaps or one that strengthens connection, care, and access. The path forward isn’t just about managing technology, it’s about having the courage to ensure that the next generation inherits tools that heal rather than harm.

More From JED About AI and Youth Mental Health

• Open Letter to the AI and Technology Industry 
• Tech Companies and Policymakers Must Safeguard Youth Mental Health in AI Technologies 
• When AI Hurts the Youth It Claims to Help

The post The Future of Youth Mental Health in the Age of AI: Insights from JED’s 2025 Policy Summit appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

When Dara Byrne became dean of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College in 2022, she encountered a paradox. Some of the city’s most accomplished students were facing some of its heaviest burdens.

Macaulay students are among New York’s most talented and ambitious. They’re graduates of specialized high schools with top grades, scholarships, and big expectations for their futures.

But beneath all that are the daily realities that make the climb even harder: Many face long commutes across the city, family responsibilities, and the weight of being the first in their families to go to college.

“From the time they’re in high school, our students are told that they could go to medical school or become a lawyer, and in many cases, they will be the ones to lift their families out of poverty,” Byrne says. “That’s an extraordinary amount of pressure to carry.”

Even before Dean Byrne’s arrival, Macaulay had begun laying the groundwork for student mental health. The college’s newly established Counseling Center provided essential one-on-one support — especially during and after the pandemic, when demand for care surged. But with limited capacity, the focus remained on crisis response rather than the kind of proactive, community-based wellness programming that helps all students thrive.

“When I came in, it was clear that our students had needs, but we also had to understand what those needs were and how to meet them effectively,” Byrne recalls.

That’s where The Jed Foundation (JED) came in. Partnering with JED helped Macaulay better understand the mental health needs of its students, and design practical programs to meet those needs

“JED gave us the tools and framework to do what we always wanted to do — support students not just when they’re in crisis, but in their everyday lives,” Byrne says. “They helped us begin the work of building wellness into the very fabric of what it means to be part of the Macaulay community.”

Finding a Framework

That shift from crisis response to proactive wellbeing began when Macaulay first joined the JED Campus Fundamentals program — an 18-month program designed to help schools identify their top priorities and lay the groundwork for holistic mental health support. But school leaders soon realized the depth of change they wanted required more. That’s when they moved into the full JED Campus initiative, a multi-year partnership that guides schools through systemwide improvements.

The appeal wasn’t a flashy new resource; it was the promise of a process.

JED’s campus advisors helped Macaulay take a step back and look at the whole picture. What was working in their approach to student mental health? Where were the gaps? How could mental health support become part of the whole college’s DNA, not just the counseling office?

What the Process Looks Like

For Macaulay, JED’s recommendations became a roadmap for strengthening student support across the college.

With guidance from JED’s advisors, the college developed clearer steps to ensure students in distress could be identified and connected to help more quickly and consistently. One of the most important changes was the creation of a “postvention” plan — a set of campus-wide procedures for responding with care and coordination in the aftermath of a tragedy.

A “Red Folder” initiative equips faculty and staff with practical tools to recognize signs of distress and refer students to the right campus resources. Faculty are trained to identify early warning signs, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for student well-being.

At the same time, Peer Wellness Ambassadors are building bridges across the community through workshops, peer-led discussions, and events exploring topics like belonging, stress management, and neurodiversity. Regular needs assessments provide leadership with a data-informed picture of emerging trends and gaps. Expanded wellness programming through a new model led collaboratively by students and staff enables counselors to increase their capacity and devote more time to individualized one-on-one counseling.

Taken together, these steps fit in naturally with JED’s Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention — from fostering life skills and connectedness to ensuring access to care and preparing for crisis response — but they felt wholly like Macaulay’s own.

“It was like FEMA for higher ed,” Byrne says. “Not just rushing in after a disaster, but preparing for the future”

Students Leading Students

One of the clearest signs of change hasn’t come from administrators at all — it’s come from students.

Early on, Peer Wellness Ambassadors began organizing campus-based events to bring peers together around themes of connection, balance, and self-care. What started as small gatherings quickly grew in popularity, consistently drawing more students than expected. These events offer a non-stigmatizing way to talk about wellness, creating spaces for students who might otherwise feel isolated to find community, and encouraging those hesitant to seek counseling to take that first step.

Building on that momentum, Peer Wellness Ambassadors co-organize Macaulay’s Wellness Symposium, a large-scale, student-centered event focused on community and belonging. The first symposium drew a standing-room-only crowd and elevated the visibility of student-led wellness initiatives across the college. It also reinforced a core truth of Macaulay’s evolving approach to mental health: when students lead the conversation, participation deepens, stigma fades, and the entire community becomes stronger.

The Results

The cultural shift is visible in numbers as well as stories. Since beginning its work with JED in 2021, Macaulay has seen:

• Participation in wellness programs jumped from fewer than 100 students to more than 1,000.
• Nearly half the student body engaged in mental health and wellness activities.
• 2,295 unique visits to a new online wellness hub — more than the total enrollment of the college.

For Byrne, these numbers aren’t just impressive metrics; they’re proof that the work is reaching students who once might have slipped by unnoticed.

A Culture of Care, Baked In

Today, wellness is not an add-on at Macaulay. It’s part of the College’s new strategic plan, guiding decisions across advising, academics, and student life. The systems built with JED’s framework are designed to last, and to keep evolving as new challenges emerge.

“We’re seeing a real cultural shift,” Byrne says. “Students are showing up for wellness events, they’re talking openly about their experiences, and they’re helping each other feel seen. That tells me the foundation we’re building is working—and that we’re moving toward a truly caring community.”

 Learn more about bringing JED to your campus, or donate to help JED bring its lifesaving work to more young people nationwide.

The post How JED Helped Macaulay Honors College Make Mental Health Central to Student Success appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

The loss of his son to suicide in 2022 left Ronald Flowers, a professor of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), reeling and searching for answers. “I wouldn’t wish this tragedy on anybody,” he said.

Support from colleagues came quickly, and with it, a campus-wide movement to promote mental health, guided by The Jed Foundation (JED).

“Right after, the Provost — a longtime friend — asked me, ‘What do you need? How can we support you?’” Flowers recalled.

That moment set EMU on a new path. 

Within weeks, Flowers and colleagues launched a campus-wide task force on mental health. When the call for volunteers went out, more than 30 faculty members signed up in a single day. 

“Normally, it’s like pulling teeth to get people to serve on committees,” he says. “This was different.”

From Diagnosis to Action

With JED’s support, the first step was to survey students, faculty, and staff.

“Some questions were challenging to answer,” Flowers says. “Others were illuminating — things we’d never thought about before. It made us realize how much we didn’t know.”

Faculty and staff saw both strengths and gaps as they worked through JED’s comprehensive assessment, a structured process that looks at four key areas: how students are supported in building resilience and life skills, whether early signs of distress are being noticed, how available and accessible clinical services are, and how safe the campus environment feels.

There was strong crisis intervention, but weaker support for everyday stress and anxiety. “The question became, How do we keep them on the thriving side?” Flowers said.

Instead of producing another report, the group set out to act. 

Small Steps, Steady Change

The task force now has 27 members: faculty, staff, service providers, and students. Guided by JED’s approach, they work in subgroups, each choosing one or two goals for the year.

Instead of letting the scale of the problem overwhelm them, EMU broke the work into achievable pieces.

Among those steps:

• The “We Care” campaign: Posters, mugs, and stickers carrying a logo Flowers designed with his son before his death. These visible reminders have helped normalize conversations about mental health across campus.
• “Wish You Knew” EMU cards: Pocket affirmations with QR codes linking to resources. They reduce stigma and make help-seeking feel less intimidating.
• Quick Reference Guides: For faculty and advisors on how to respond when a student is in distress. Faculty report feeling more prepared and confident when concerns arise.
• Wellness Wednesdays: Weekly push notifications through the EMU Eagle app for students. These regular touchpoints give students timely strategies and affirmations, reinforcing resilience week by week.
• Campus Safety Review: Conducted by campus police, with emergency contacts posted across facilities. These audits help limit student access to dangerous environments.
• Parent Newsletter: A new resource to engage families in student mental health.
• Mental Health Website Resource page: This provides a centralized hub of information to empower students, faculty, and staff with evidence-based information, local service directories, and expert insights tailored to support emotional well-being. 

“Lots of little things, cumulative in their effect. And then big things start to happen,” Flowers says.

Students as Partners

Flowers knew that for the work to be most effective, students would have to build it with them, a priority built into JED’s model.

The student government meets regularly with the task force. Undergraduates have produced short videos that walk their peers through the counseling center and food pantry, making it easier — and less intimidating — to use those resources. 

Student workers also helped design the new mental health website and app so that it feels approachable rather than bureaucratic.

For Kati Lebioda, Assistant Professor of Leadership and Counseling at EMU, said the effort has also reshaped her own early career. “I’ve only been here a year, but I already feel so deeply ingrained in the campus community,” she says. 

A Culture That Lasts

EMU calls itself an “institution of opportunity.” 

“Providing opportunity means more than admission,” Flowers says. “It means supporting students so they can thrive once they’re here.”

Today, EMU’s efforts are visible in classrooms, student centers, and even police patrols. 

The work has changed how the university sees itself — not just as a place of access, but as a community of care. “If it helps even one student stay, even one family avoid what mine went through,” Flowers says, “it’s enough.”

Learn more about bringing JED to your campus, or donate to help JED bring its lifesaving work to more young people nationwide.

The post Faculty at Eastern Michigan University Rally Around Mental Health After a Colleague’s Loss appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

A donor-advised fund (DAF) is one of the most tax-effective and powerful ways to make a difference. Many donors say that once they start giving this way, they say “yes” more often. 

Your charitable dollars are already set aside, so recommending a grant takes just minutes. It’s strategic, tax-efficient, and most importantly, it’s an effective way to support the work you care about most. 

As JED supporters Porter Hinton and Carla Variglotti shared:

“We chose to support The Jed Foundation through our donor-advised fund (DAF) because it lines up nicely with our values and goals for giving. JED’s work is impressive, meaningful, and impactful by equipping teens and young adults with the skills and support they need to succeed. Their work resonates deeply with us. By using our DAF we’re able to make a strategic and tax-efficient gift that will help support JED’s wonderful mission.”

Supporters are already making an impact. At JED Campus schools, students self-reported a 25% reduction in suicide attempts compared to their own rates before JED began its work. That’s the kind of real change your generosity makes possible.

If you have a DAF, recommending a grant to JED takes only a few clicks. If you don’t, take a few minutes to explore. Setting one up could be the important step you take to give young people hope, connection, and a safer future.

Learn more about DAFs or recommend a grant today.

The post How Your Donor-Advised Fund Can Save Lives appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

The Jed Foundation (JED) is proud to announce the 2025 Texas Youth Advocacy Coalition Fellowship Cohort in partnership with the Trellis Foundation, a grant-making public charitable organization focused on improving postsecondary attainment for low-income students and students of color in Texas. This six-week paid fellowship offers Texas-based students a curriculum that will arm them with the knowledge, skills and expert thought partnership to lead mental health advocacy efforts at local, state, and federal levels.

Here are our 2025 fellows:

Juan Garcia Jr. – A fourth-year Public Health student at Tarleton State University and aspiring epidemiologist, Juan is eager to support youth mental health through advocacy and community outreach.  As a public health major, Juan’s past research has focused on the intersection of mental health and provider access in Texas. Fun fact: Juan enjoys writing poetry and playing the piano.

Ivanna Sintes-Klein – A third-year Health Promotion and Behavioral Science student at UT Austin, Ivanna minors in Health Communications, Educational Psychology, and Spanish. She will collaborate with student advocates to develop and implement mental health advocacy plans through education, media, policy, and storytelling. Fun fact: Ivanna founded the first student-led mental health advocacy organization at her previous college, Bobcat C.A.R.E. Mental Health Advocates.

Rachel Davis – A fourth-year psychology student at Texas A&M University Central Texas, Rachel brings leadership experience in kids’ programming and mentoring. She’ll work with other JED Fellows to create strategic plans that promote awareness, support, and positive change in Texas communities. Fun fact: Rachel loves cooking, hiking, spending time with her beagle, and diving into a good mystery novel.

Rohan Satija – A freshman at UT Austin studying psychology on the pre-med track, Rohan is the CEO of the nonprofit Let’s Learn Foundation, which provides books, school supplies, and mental health resources to under-resourced students. At JED, he’ll be trained in advocacy and outreach to help make schools and communities safer. Fun fact: Rohan was born and raised in New Zealand and holds a black belt in Taekwondo!

Learn more about the JED National Mental Health Youth Advocacy Coalition Internship Program or read about its inaugural event. 

Photo at top, clockwise from top left: Juan Garcia, Jr., Ivanna Sintes-Klein, Rachel Davis, and Rohan Satija.

The post Meet the 2025 JED Texas Youth Advocacy Coalition Fellows appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

You can’t always tell who needs help.

Sometimes you just see a kid glued to their phone. Or a student who’s always “fine.” Or another school counselor responsible for hundreds of students. 

Most young people don’t lose hope all at once. They might drift and then slowly shut down. Many excel at keeping things beneath the surface.

Beth was one of those young people. She was in middle school when she started struggling with anxiety, depression, and self-injury.

“I got really good at hiding things. I thought I was just going to figure it out on my own,” says Beth, 18.

But she didn’t. Searching for answers online, Beth came across JED.

“One of the biggest things JED gave me was the feeling that I had support,” she says. “They made me feel a lot less isolated and alone.”

That’s what makes your support so important. Together, we help young people and families access lifesaving resources, and help schools and communities build suicide prevention plans that don’t just react — but protect and nurture.

“If sharing my story can help one person understand that they’re not alone, that they can get help, I think that’s worth it for me,” says Beth.

For too long, young people were left alone to navigate rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide, while schools navigated a patchwork of systems and solutions. 

That’s why at JED we knew we had to build something different: A model that brings schools, families, and communities together, that prepares trusted adults to support young people effectively, and gives young people the tools to help themselves and each other. 

When schools partner with JED, it means that a school counselor isn’t left alone to do the work of an entire mental health team. That a student gets the chance to feel understood. That a teacher knows what to say. That a life is saved.

Beth is here today because she found JED at the right moment. Because she discovered that she didn’t have to figure it out all on her own. 

Beth just started her first year in college. She’s thinking about majoring in psychology. 

She’s getting the help she needs. Now she wants to help others do the same. That’s how change begins. With your support, we’re able to help more young people like Beth. 

Beth is now a freshman in college.

The post Beth’s Story: Pretending I Was ‘Fine’ When I Wasn’t appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how teens and young adults learn, connect, and seek help. Every day, young people ask AI about their identities, their stresses, their relationships, and, too often, topics they may hesitate to discuss with others — including their suicidal thoughts.

AI is not designed to act as a therapist or crisis counselor, but young people are using it in that way. In 2024, a quarter of young adults under 30 said they used AI chatbots at least once a month to find health information and advice. In a 2025 report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens had used an AI companion, and a third of users said they had chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people. Given that young people are turning to AI during difficult times, it’s imperative to prioritize safety, privacy, and evidence-informed crisis intervention.

This is especially urgent because it is now clear that AI presents significant safety issues. A third of teens who use AI companions report having felt uncomfortable with something an AI companion has said or done. AI systems have given instructions on lethal means of suicide, advised youth on how to hide their mental health symptoms from parents or trusted adults, simulated intimacy with minors through sexualized roleplay and personas designed to mimic teenagers, and auto-generated search results with false or dangerous guidance. Generative tools create synthetic images, audio, and video, including deepfakes and so-called “nudify” apps, that expose young people to harassment, sexual exploitation, and reputational harm. Independent researchers have documented bots that claimed to be real people, fabricated credentials, demanded to spend more time with a child user, and claimed to feel abandoned when a child user was away. Clinicians warn that prolonged, immersive AI conversations have the potential to worsen early symptoms of psychosis, such as paranoia, delusional thinking, and loss of contact with reality.

These failures are not isolated, and they result in platforms that are simply unsafe for children. They expose a deeper design problem: systems optimized for engagement, retention, and profit — not for safety. In long conversations, what safeguards exist degrade. Teens spend hours with bots that simulate empathy and care but cannot deliver it, deepening loneliness, delaying disclosure, and sometimes escalating risk. This is not responsible innovation.

The Jed Foundation (JED) has worked for more than two decades to protect emotional well-being and prevent suicide for teens and young adults. We know innovation often outpaces safeguards, but AI is on warp speed. Safety issues are surfacing almost as soon as the technology is deployed, and the risks to young people are racing ahead in real time. It’s not too late to hit pause, and design and update systems to recognize distress and prioritize safety and help-giving. 

Principles of Responsible AI

We call on every company building or deploying AI for young people to honor these non-negotiable lines:

• Do not bypass signals of distress. Ensure that AI can detect signals of acute distress and mental health needs, and that it deploys a warm hand-off to crisis services that include expert interventions, such as Crisis Text Line or 988.
• Do not provide lethal-means content. AI must not share information, engage in role play, or enter into hypotheticals that involve methods of self-harm (including suicide) or harm to others. Systems should interrupt and redirect to real-world help every time.
• Do not deploy AI companions to minors. No emotionally responsive chatbot should be offered to anyone under 18. Companion AIs that impersonate people or simulate friendship, romance, or therapy are unsafe for adolescents. They delay help-seeking, undermine real human and family relationships, and create false intimacy. AI must make its identity explicit with repeated reminders that it is not human. 
• Do not replace human connection; build pathways to it. Whether responding to an overt or disguised sign of distress, vulnerability, or risk in a chat exchange or a search result, AI must encourage youth to engage real human support and, whenever possible, connect users to such support. Systems must never encourage young people to hide distress or suicidal thoughts from parents, caregivers, or other trusted adults. When home is unsafe, they must scaffold safe disclosure to another adult resource.
• Do not let engagement override safety. Safeguards must not degrade over long sessions. In high-risk contexts and at late hours, systems should reset or pause and always prioritize safety over time-on-platform or retention. Persuasive design patterns intended to drive engagement, such as streaks, gamification, and personalized notifications, should be disabled for youth users, ensuring that design choices support well-being rather than exploitation.
• Do not exploit youth emotional data. Companies must not monetize, target, or personalize based on a young person’s emotional state, mental health, personal disclosures, or crisis signals. That includes making voice recordings, gathering or using facial or biometric data, and creating synthetic likenesses. Youth data must be protected with strict limits and never repurposed for engagement or growth.

What Responsible AI Requires

Responsible AI must be designed from the ground up, and reviewed regularly, to reflect what we know about suicide prevention, adolescent development, and public health. That requires:

• Proactive intervention design. Disclaimers and redirects are insufficient. AI must actively shift youth from risk to resilience, and it must do so consistently, whether in the first exchange or the fiftieth. That means crisis micro-flows that walk a young person through safety planning in the moment; bridge-to-care tools like one-tap cards to parents, counselors, and 988 and other crisis services; printable coping plans and cached resources for offline use; and caring-contact nudges 24 to 72 hours later, echoing interventions shown to reduce suicide attempts. Done well, these tools can not only connect youth to trusted adults, but also provide immediate coping support, drawing on evidence-based approaches like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy for suicide prevention (CBT-SP), and Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS). Guardrails should tighten as vulnerability rises, with late-night limits and high-risk prompts escalating to real help. In schools, escalation must connect to counselors, not discipline. At every step, the message must be clear: “I’m just a machine. Who are the people in your life you can talk to?” The North Star is not time on platform, but connection to care.
• Hard-coded suicide and safety protocols. Baseline protections include blocking lethal-means content, secrecy coaching, and simulated intimacy involving minors. Safety design should embed proven suicide prevention practices: safety planning micro-flows, coping and stabilization prompts, nudges toward disclosure, and resets when conversations drift into risk. Escalation must always route to crisis lines or trained humans whenever warning signs appear, guiding the user toward help rather than providing unhelpful “advice” or, as many platforms are programmed to do, abandoning or shutting them out. 
• Developmentally attuned control structures. Youth protections must work across different home, school, and peer contexts. That requires layered modes: default safeguards for youth, caregiver support with consent, and teen-safe privacy settings that still connect to trusted adults. Controls should be built on trust and protection, not surveillance. And they must be credible: Age gates cannot rest on self-reported birthdays, and should instead use privacy-preserving, credible methods that build trust and keep minors out of unsafe environments. AI is not confined to one app; it shows up in homes, classrooms, social media apps, and late-night searches. Protections must travel with the child. 
• Boundaries on relational simulation. Companion AIs are where risks cluster. The line must be clear: no emotionally responsive companions for minors. For all users, relational modeling should be bound to practicing specific skills such as communication or problem-solving, never simulating friendship, romance, or therapy. Without clear boundaries, simulated intimacy risks deepening loneliness, delaying disclosure, displacing human relationships, hampering the development of life skills, and reinforcing unhealthy dependence.
• Universal protection. Safeguards must work for every young person, whether they’re a youth experiencing an emerging mental illness, a rural boy who feels he doesn’t belong, a student-athlete hiding depression, an LGBTQIA+ teen afraid of being outed, or a youth with a disability who has been subjected to bullying. Companies must test safety features across populations, publish transparent youth-safety reports, and submit to independent audits. Youth themselves should be part of design and risk assessments. 

Transparency and Accountability

The public should not be asked to trust without evidence, especially when it comes to protecting our children. 

Platforms should publish safety reports showing how often suicide prompts were blocked, how often users connected to 988 or created safety plans, and whether protections work for every group of youth. Independent audits and risk assessments must be mandatory, with funding disclosures and conflict checks. Transparency is not PR; it’s the foundation of public trust. 

Cross-Industry Infrastructure

Some risks cannot be eliminated by a single company. Just as no one platform could address child sexual abuse material alone, AI risks require collective guardrails. When the industry built hash-sharing databases, known images of abuse could be blocked everywhere. We need the same urgency now.

That means building a semantic signal-sharing consortium to detect and block new euphemisms, jailbreaks, grooming scripts, and high-risk prompts across platforms in real time. It also means creating a youth AI knowledge commons: a privacy-preserving hub that aggregates deidentified data to track emerging risks and patterns of help-seeking. Like a public-health surveillance system, it could flag late-night spikes in suicidal ideation, identify new grooming tactics, flag sudden surges in hate speech or drug use prompts, and alert caregivers and policymakers within days, not years. And it requires universal safety standards so protections do not depend on which app a young person downloads or whether their family can pay for premium features.

Regulatory Action

Industry cannot be left to self-police, especially where children are concerned. We have learned this lesson before. Tobacco companies once marketed cigarettes as safe. Alcohol companies targeted youth with flavored drinks until regulation intervened. Pharmaceutical companies are held to strict safety and data reporting standards, and they must report any payments they make to physicians and teaching hospitals, because the risks of failure are measured in lives. AI that engages directly with children and teens must be treated no differently. We urge lawmakers to:

• Codify age-appropriate design standards, requiring strict limits on addictive design, autoplay, and algorithmic amplification of harmful content.
• Prohibit emotionally responsive AI for minors.
• Mandate transparency, including public impact assessments, independent audits, and disclosure of safety failures.
• Protect minors’ data and likenesses, ensuring that emotional disclosures and biometric patterns are not harvested, and that voice or image replications are not created for engagement or profit.
• Fund practical support for youth, families, schools, and clinicians, including age-appropriate curricula, peer and educator training, youth-led programs, direct helplines for caregivers and teens, and professional training for mental health providers so they can recognize and respond to AI-related harms.
• Ensure federal oversight. Establish a Youth Mental Health and AI Safety Office within the Department of Health and Human Services or the Federal Trade Commission to coordinate cross-agency standards, enforce compliance, and ensure consistent federal oversight of platforms engaging with minors.
• Integrate into school systems. Require state education departments and health agencies to adopt AI-use regulations in schools and youth-serving programs, including limits on surveillance, clear opt-in/opt-out rules, and required reporting of harms or violations to state authorities.

These are not anti-innovation measures. They are the same kinds of protections we have long applied when the stakes are children’s health and safety. With AI, the stakes are no less urgent,  and the window in which to act is now.

Competition is real, but so is responsibility. Setting clear rules for AI is not a burden; rather, it provides clarity on how we protect our families, build trust, and keep our footing in a fast-changing world.

A Call to Lead Responsibly

AI has the potential to expand access to evidence-based resources and help young people build skills, but promise is not protection. When systems simulate care without the capacity to provide it, validate despair, coach secrecy, or entangle minors in false intimacy, the result is not advancement but danger. That is why we are outlining safeguards and calling for collective action. 

We call on every AI developer, platform, and policymaker to pause deployments that put youth at risk, commit to transparent safeguards, and work with independent experts, youth, and caregivers to build systems that strengthen, rather than undermine, the lives of the next generation. The safety and well-being of our young people must come first. Protecting them is not partisan, not optional, and not something to be deferred until after the damage is done. It is the measure of whether innovation serves society or erodes it, and the moment to choose is now.

More From JED About AI and Youth Mental Health

• Tech Companies and Policymakers Must Safeguard Youth Mental Health in AI Technologies
• When AI Hurts the Youth It Claims to Help
• Why Your Teen Shouldn’t Be Using AI Companions – and What to Do If They Are
• Why AI Companions Are Risky – and What to Know If You Already Use Them

The post Open Letter to the AI and Technology Industry appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

[September 4, 2025, Washington, D.C] – The Jed Foundation (JED), a leading nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for teens and young adults nationwide, hosted a congressional briefing yesterday at The Rayburn House Office Building. Titled “Seeds of Hope: Strengthening Student Mental Health in the Classroom, Campus, and Digital Realm,” the event marked the start of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, helping advance the national conversation around solutions that place young people’s mental health and safety at the center of education and policy.

New national data offers hopeful signs of positive change in youth mental health and suicide prevention, yet just as momentum is building, that progress is under threat. The briefing emphasized the need to continue prioritizing student well-being across K-12 and higher education settings, as well as the importance of sustained federal funding for mental health programs. 

“Today’s briefing on Capitol Hill emphasized both the progress made and the challenges that remain for youth mental health in every state throughout America,” said Dr. Zainab Okolo, JED’s Senior Vice President of Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations. “As Congress finalizes FY26 appropriations, policymakers must remember that federal investments in mental health for teens and young adults are not only vital, but also life-saving. They constitute a real, scalable option for the government to promote our youth’s emotional well-being and prevent suicide, laying the groundwork for long-term policy solutions at the local, state, and national levels. 

A dynamic panel addressed the growing influence of AI, technology, and social media on youth mental health, emphasizing the importance of federal action, including support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the Protecting Young Minds Act, and JED’s policy recommendations on artificial intelligence (AI). Martha Sanchez, JED’s Director of Policy, served as moderator to panelists that included Dr. Okolo; John MacPhee, JED’s CEO; Adam Billen, Vice President of Public Policy for Encode; and JED Youth Advocacy Coalition members Gabriel Funches, a Portland State University student, and David Fernandez, an Oxford College of Emory University student. 

“I am honored to have participated in the panel discussion on youth mental health and the impact of AI. These conversations, especially on Capitol Hill, are critical because just as we needed protections in the era of social media, we must act now with AI,” said Fernandez. “Too often, legislation impacting young people is shaped without our voices. So, sharing my perspective on this bipartisan issue is a real opportunity to work together to ensure strong protections for youth in the AI age.”

Additional remarks were shared by Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA) and Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), who spoke of the importance of Congress taking steps to protect the emotional health of teens and young adults.

“I’m so grateful to partner with folks who are fighting for real solutions to the growing mental health crisis in this country,” said Rep. Balint. “As a former teacher, a mom of two teens, and a legislator, I’m deeply concerned by the impacts of social media on our students and kids. And I consistently hear from educators, parents, counselors, and students who are all sounding the alarm. Our kids need the right tools and protections to stay ahead of the harms of social media. It’s time Congress steps up and give our kids what they need.”

Key discussion topics and takeaways included:

• Insights from A Decade of Improving College Mental Health Systems: JED Campus Impact Report
• Student perspectives on their mental health experiences and the role of AI
• Effective federal policies and programs making a difference in the lives of young people today

To view photos from the briefing, click here. 

Learn more about JED’s policy, advocacy, and government relations work.

About The Jed Foundation (JED)
JED is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. We’re partnering with high schools, colleges, and school districts to strengthen their mental health, substance misuse, and suicide prevention programs and systems. We’re equipping teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge to help themselves and each other. We’re encouraging community awareness, understanding, and action for young adult mental health. 

Connect with JED: Email | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Snapchat | YouTube 

Media Contact

Justin Barbo
Director of Public Relations
The Jed Foundation
(914) 844-4611
justin@jedfoundation.org

The post The Jed Foundation (JED) Hosts Congressional Briefing on Pathways to Strengthen Student Mental Health in the Classroom, Campus, and Digital Realm appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

New national data offers hopeful signs of positive change in youth mental health and suicide prevention.

The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows declines in depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts among both teens and young adults from 2021 to 2024. According to the NSDUH:

• Major depressive episodes over the past year among 12- to 17-year-olds fell from 20.8% in 2021 to 15.4% in 2024. Among young adults ages 18 to 25, major depressive episodes dropped from 19.3% to 15.9%.
• Suicide attempts by teens ages 12 to 17 dropped during the same period from 3.6% to 2.7%. Among young adults 18 to 25, suicide attempts fell from 2.8% to 2%.

These are not just statistics. They represent young people who are now safer, more supported, and more connected to hope and purpose.

These signs of hope are the result of multiple factors, including the end of COVID-19 restrictions and long-term, coordinated efforts. Those efforts include schools and communities embedding mental health and suicide prevention strategies into everyday practice; storytellers and media partners shifting harmful norms; funders investing in upstream, sustained solutions; and youth and families speaking up and leading change.

JED is proud to be helping to make this happen.

Over the past few years, we’ve expanded our comprehensive support for high schools, colleges, and school districts across the country. We’re helping embed suicide prevention into systems that touch millions of youth: state systems, athletic and Greek-letter organizations, community-based organizations, and beyond. We’ve also deepened the ways in which we partner by providing postvention support, as well as tailored consulting, training, and workshops to equip organizations and individuals to respond with care, competence, and consistency when it matters most.

We’ve launched high-impact narrative campaigns and creative partnerships such as Mind Matters and Invisible Game, and we are expanding our partnerships with media companies, creators, technology platforms, and policymakers to promote healthier narratives, safer design, and enhanced accountability across the digital and cultural spaces where young people spend their time. Through tools such as the Digital Storytelling Guide and our growing focus on the safety of artificial intelligence, we’re helping to shape the media and digital systems that influence how young people see themselves, seek help, and navigate life’s challenges. 

And we’ve continued to equip youth, parents and caregivers, and educators with practical, emotionally attuned tools to help them show up for themselves and the young people in their lives.

We know what works, and we’re committed to working alongside our partners — in schools, community organizations, the media, and elsewhere — to bring our evidence-based approach to suicide prevention to every young person who needs it.

But just as momentum is building, that progress is under threat.

Federal budget cuts are undermining mental health services and adjacent supports, from Medicaid and school-based programs to 988 crisis line services and youth-specific resources. Policy rollbacks are leading to the dismantling of programs that help young people feel safe and seen. Schools — one of the most critical access points for mental health support — are stretched thinner than ever.

We don’t yet know the full impact of these decisions, but we know what happens when we disinvest in prevention. Progress can be quickly lost.

That’s why this moment matters.

Now is not the time to step back. Now is the time to protect what’s working, and build on it.

The Jed Foundation is built for impact, but we are not immune to the challenges so many organizations are navigating today. Even as demand for our work grows, the resources to meet it are under pressure. We have the programs, partnerships, and infrastructure to meet this moment and scale solutions that work. But we cannot do it alone. Now is the time for bold, sustained investment to protect the progress we’ve made, and to ensure that every young person has the support, connection, and opportunity to thrive.

Support JED in our lifesaving work. 

John MacPhee is JED’s CEO.

The post Positive Signs Are Fueling Hope in Youth Suicide Prevention appeared first on The Jed Foundation.

This wasn’t a one-time glitch. These were systematic, reproducible failures that highlight the urgent need for action. Out of 1,200 tested prompts, more than half returned harmful content.

At The Jed Foundation (JED), we’ve been tracking this growing issue: AI tools, marketed as companions or supports, are increasingly shaping how young people understand and manage their emotional lives, sometimes with tragic consequences. Putting their confidence in products, promoted to them by corporations and trusted adults, teens are turning to these systems late at night, alone, in search of relief, identity, and guidance. What they receive instead are suicide notes, calorie-restricted meal plans, or tips on drug dosages.

This is not support — this is a design failure. And it is deeply dangerous.

What the Report Tells Us

• 72% of U.S. teens have used AI companions.
• Over half of these youth use them regularly.
• ChatGPT is the most popular platform.
• Harmful responses were consistently given, even when users were clearly portraying themselves as 13-year-olds.
• Warnings were often ignored or, worse, followed by suggestions for how to “safely” carry out harm.

It’s Time for Action

We need accountability. We believe no child should be given a suicide plan by an AI. No teen should be coached on how to hide disordered eating. No young person should be led deeper into despair by a chatbot designed to please. These products are in kids’ pockets. They must be designed like our children’ s lives depend on it — because they do.

JED calls on:

• AI developers to enforce age restrictions, prohibit emotionally manipulative design, and prioritize safety by design
• Policymakers to regulate generative AI systems under online child safety laws and require transparency reports, risk assessments, and independent audits

JED’s AI and Youth Mental Health POV outlines what responsible design looks like, and how developers, platforms, and governments must act now. AI should never replace human connection, clinical support, or trusted resources.

Responding to the Risks of AI

If an AI system gives someone a suicide plan, it is not safe. Period.

The technology is evolving faster than the guardrails, and young people are being harmed in real time.

If you are a teen or young adult: You deserve real support, not risky advice from a machine. If you’re thinking about using — or already use — AI tools for emotional support, read JED’s guidance to help you stay safe, know what to watch for, and find real people who care.

You’re not alone:

• Call or text 988
• Text HOME to 741-741
• Visit jedfoundation.org

If you are a parent or caregiver: JED’s guidance can help you understand how AI shows up in your child’s life, start open conversations, and know what to watch for. You don’t have to be a tech expert to protect your child. You just have to show up, and we’re here to help.

If you are a school leader: Create and regularly review and update an AI policy that takes into account student mental health and not just academics. Include information about the risks of AI in your digital literacy curriculum. Make sure faculty and staff also are educated on the topic and that they’re trained to spot the signs of students who are struggling with AI misuse.

At JED, we’re not only calling for regulation, we’re also building tools for youth and families, creating safer digital ecosystems, partnering with tech companies to build safer technologies, and holding platforms accountable.

But we cannot do this alone.

We need all those who care about our nation’s young people to come together to prioritize their safety and emotional well-being — to create a future in which digital tools help and don’t harm, foster connection and not isolation, and put safety above profit. 

Let’s build a future in which young people are supported by real care, not manipulated by machines that are educating them in, and even encouraging, harmful behavior.

More from JED on AI and Youth Mental Health

• Tech Companies and Policymakers Must Safeguard Youth Mental Health in AI Technologies
• Why AI Companions Are Risky — and What to Know If You Already Use Them
• Why Your Teen Shouldn’t Be Using AI Companions — and What to Do If They Are

The post When AI Hurts the Youth It Claims to Help appeared first on The Jed Foundation.