In January, Senior Research Scientist Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., spoke on an American Psychological Association-sponsored panel at CES, the world’s largest tech event (over 148,000 attendees in 2026!). The topic of the panel was “Youth Mental Health: Helping a Generation Thrive in a Digital World”—something Charmaraman has spoken about countless times. The difference this time was that her audience was largely technology professionals.
“It was incredibly exciting and invigorating to have a huge audience of people who my work may not otherwise reach,” said Charmaraman, who leads WCW’s Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. “It was also, interestingly, a mostly male audience. And they were very curious about youth mental health and what they could do to positively impact it.”
Charmaraman was asked what she would say to tech leaders about what they can do to improve youth mental health. “I told them that I would like the major tech companies to create a pact to go slower, so that they’re not in a race to get out products as fast as possible to beat their competition,” she said. “That would give them time to design for the wellbeing of their most vulnerable users and to care about wellbeing from the get-go, not just repair after mistakes or miscalculations have been made. Also, one of the things that’s really critical for the current generation of users is AI literacy education, which could be funded by tech companies. They have the money. And a nationwide educational program would help people use their products more safely and responsibly, which would eventually help their bottom line.”
Coming out of CES, she believes that this kind of change is possible. “I believe there’s a growing recognition of the problems around technology and youth mental health, and a growing interest in technology-based solutions,” she said. “Instead of focusing solely on reducing or eliminating harms, we have a chance to also teach about proactive and productive use that can foster positive connections and wellbeing. And if we’re at an inflection point where there’s an opportunity to reach tech professionals, I think it’s critical to put the latest data in front of them to make our case that they have an important role to play. Speaking at CES allowed me to do just that.”
Watch the panel Charmaraman spoke on at CES here.
