Teens, Screens and Mental Health

Julie Jargon covers the intersection of family and technology in her Family & Tech column in The Wall Street Journal. Julie has been a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal for 14 years. Before starting the column in 2019, Julie was a corporate reporter covering the packaged food and restaurant industries. She lives outside of Los Angeles with her husband, three children and cat.

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Kara Bagot, MD, is the Medical Director of the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai’s strategic alliance with the Center on Addiction. Dr. Bagot is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and her research background is in adolescent substance use disorders (SUDs) and overlapping childhood psychopathology. She completed her adult and child and adolescent psychiatry and clinical research training at Yale University School of Medicine Child Study Center. Dr. Bagot’s current work focuses on the effects of technology (e.g. social media, video gaming, internet use) on development of SUDs and psychiatric illness in children and adolescents, and ways to use mobile and digital technologies to improve assessment, monitoring, and treatment of SUDs in adolescents.

Kelly’s lived experience with mental health diagnoses and trauma are at the center of her passion for transforming how we support individuals and change systems and services. She currently works in Peer Advocacy, Supports, and Services, where she is involved in promoting peer support, peer certification, youth and young adult leadership, and college mental health.

She is passionate about trauma-informed care, peer support, consumer-led transformation, positive psychology, and civil rights. She serves in an advisory role to the Well Being Trust, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the Center for Law and Social Policy. She has spoken at many events, including The White House Making Health Care Better Series on Mental Health, and has been featured in media outlets including NBC Nightly News, The Mighty, Thrive Global, Yes! Magazine, and Mashable.

In 2019, Kelly was awarded the Disruptive Innovator Award by the International Association of Peer Supporters, an award given to a young person making positive change in mental health through positive disruption.

She is a certified yoga teacher and holds a certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from The Flourishing Center. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Tracy Elizabeth is TikTok's Head of Issue Policy, Trust & Safety. She oversees the Minor Safety, Integrity & Authenticity, Harassment & Bullying, Content Classification and Applied Research teams to ensure TikTok's policies are designed to keep youth safe and to catalog content based on age-appropriateness. Tracy holds a doctorate in Adolescent Development and a masters in Risk & Prevention from Harvard University. Prior to TikTok, Tracy managed Netflix's Kids & Family Metadata team and helped establish Netflix's Global Maturity Ratings department. She is a former elementary school teacher, turned entertainment tech enthusiast. Tracy specializes in designing media that bolster kids' and teens' social, emotional, and academic well-being. Most importantly, Tracy is the mother of a little girl who is growing up in a media world.

Niklas is a Behavioral Scientist working as a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. Here, he studies the effects of digital technology on well-being and performance as part of the research program "Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age".

Becka Ross is a licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 15 years experience in mental health, working in both direct practice as a psychotherapist, managing a residential program for young men transitioning to adulthood, providing teletherapy in a medical setting and currently the Chief Program Officer at Crisis Text Line; free, 24/7 crisis support through a text based service. In her current role Becka oversees the clinical team to ensure quality crisis intervention service through text. In her time with Crisis Text Line she has been part of expanding Crisis Text Line service to 3 other countries, using machine learning and technology to improve the speed and quality of crisis intervention through text. She is a passionate advocate for access to quality mental health and suicide prevention.