SMILEY has three main sections: 

1. Providing teens with tips and tricks on how to create safe spaces for themselves on social media and how to find supportive information and resources online. 

2. Teaching teens coping skills (e.g., distraction, self-soothing) that they can use to manage stress and other feelings after having negative online experiences. 

3. Encouraging teens to reach out to trusted, personalized contacts (e.g., friends, family members, professionals, and crisis hotlines) that can give them support following negative online experiences. 

SMILEY sends messages, images, videos, stories, and other multimedia resources to the user that convey the information of the three main sections.

SMILEY is hosted on Meta’s Messenger app. 

A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversations among people. The chatbot we have created exists on the Messenger app through Meta (the company that operates Facebook and Instagram).  

The chatbot starts with a main menu that asks teens what kind of support they want in the moment, allowing them to choose content that aligns with their goals. From there, it functions in a question-and-answer format, so that teens are asked to choose from a set of prompts about different content they wish to view, and then it shows that content to them.  

Text content is broken down to be manageable for teens of different reading levels and incorporates pictures, video, and audio content to be dynamic and engaging.  

The chatbot is structured with scripted responses, generated by our study team, and does not use artificial intelligence. This means that it will not produce surprising or inappropriate responses.  

SMILEY is quite different than typical customer service chatbots. It was designed in partnership with teens, so that is intended to be youth-friendly and engaging. It was also designed to have personalized responses that feel natural and supportive. For example, it incorporates teens’ individual preferences on educational content and skills that feel individually meaningful to them. 

SMILEY does NOT use artificial intelligence to send responses “on the fly.” ALL responses and content that SMILEY sends to the user are previously written and vetted by the research team. 

ETUDES will be collecting all responses that teens provide to the chatbot. Of note, responses are selected from a standard list (e.g., “Continue,” “Main Menu,” options like “1,” “Yes,” etc.), rather than asking teens to share open-ended information.  

Teens’ Messenger username will be shown to the chatbot.  

No health-related information is collected by the SMILEY chatbot. All assessments with health-related information will be collected solely by the ETUDES Center and stored in the ETUDES database.  

As part of teen’s participation in the ETUDES Center, teen will report their race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. SMILEY study staff will also colect teen’s information about teen’s preferred coping skills and the contact information for their social supports. This information will be loaded into the chatbot to provide a more personalized experience for teens. However, this also means that some of this information might be seen or stored by Meta. For this reason, teens do not have to provide any information they don’t feel comfortable sharing. 

The SMILEY the chatbot will NOT have access to teen’s phone number. 

Meta has its own privacy policy that details what data is collected and how it's used. The types of data Meta collects are user activity, interactions with others, app, browser, and device information, etc. For SMILEY, this means that Meta will get information about whether your child uses the chatbot, for how long, and what type of device they use to access it (e.g., phone, laptop, tablet). 

Onboarding will occur after your baseline assessment and be led by our study clinician via Zoom. First, our study clinician will randomize the teen and then orient the teen to the resulting intervention arm. For SMILEY folks, that would mean getting set up and familiar with the chatbot, including adding some personal touches like crisis contacts to be used in times of emergencies and preferred coping skills. Then our study clinician will review the list of resources. For those not randomized to SMILEY, onboarding will be a bit shorter and just consist of orienting to the resource list and identifying emergency contacts. Onboarding will last 30 minutes or less. 

Participation looks different depending on which arm the teen is randomized to. All teens will be onboarded to the project and given a list of resources to promote safe use of online spaces and coping skills that they can refer to throughout participation. Teens will also be asked to complete some surveys two weeks after onboarding, as well as their regular Center assessments.  

In addition, teens randomized to SMILEY will: 

• Interact with the SMILEY chatbot a few times per week for 4 weeks; they may choose to use it for longer. Teens who do not connect to the chatbot or enter concerning words into the chatbot will contacted by the study team. 

  • The chatbot will ask teens questions about their social media activity, skills in using social media positively, support received on social media, etc. These responses will be saved by the chatbot. They can skip any questions that they don’t feel comfortable answering.  

• The SMILEY chatbot is self-guided so the teen can use it however often they want. We recommend using SMILEY at least 2-3x a week for 10-20 minutes at a time.  

• At the 4-week mark, the study period is technically over. Teens randomized to SMILEY will receive a report that details their chatbot use. They can choose to share this report with their parent/caregiver or another trusted adult (e.g., therapist) if they wish. We will also share it with their PCP.  

• Teens randomized to SMILEY and their caregivers may be selected to participate in an exit interview where they will give feedback on their experiences with SMILEY. This interviews will be conducted by a SMILEY study team member over Zoom and won’t take more than 45 minutes.

Parent involvement in SMILEY is minimal, as we are looking to promote teen independence in navigating online spaces safely and coping. Still, parents will receive the list of resources for dealing with negative online experiences and hotlines/text lines that parents can reach out to during onboarding or via email if they can’t attend onboarding. We give this general list of resources to all families, so not all of them may be relevant to you or your family. 

Parents of teens randomized to SMILEY may be selected to participate in an exit interview.  

Though the SMILEY report is only sent to teens randomized to SMILEY, parents may be able to review the report if their teen chooses to share it 

Risks: 

• There are potential risks of continued or worsening suicidal thoughts and behaviors and continued or worsening cyberbullying as we are recruiting teens who have experienced depression, suicidality, and online victimization. Our research team is trained to handle situations of potential suicidality and severe cyberbullying if they arise. We also don’t expect anything about SMILEY to contribute to these risks or make them worse. In fact, we are incorporating education and coping skills that we anticipate could be helpful toward these issues.  

• There is a potential risk of breach of confidentiality, and messages to the chatbot may not be secure. We recommend that teens chat with SMILEY on personal rather than public devices. 

Benefits: 

• We hope that SMILEY will help your teen learn how to respond to and cope with online victimization and that it will increase their use of coping skills and boost their confidence in using social media more positively.  

If teen enters language into the chatbot that signifies risk (i.e., “kill” or other words that indicate potential harm to themselves or others), the research team will get an alert. The chatbot will also offer teen resources from the help and support section of its content. 

The research team monitors these risk alerts once per day (including weekends), so your family will not be contacted in real time. However, a member of the research team will reach out to teen and caregiver within 24 hours if they receive an alert to check in and offer resources or mental health referrals as needed. 

Teen will need a Facebook account to access to Messenger to participate in SMILEY, specifically, as that is the platform the chatbot was programed to work on. Having other Meta accounts, like one through Instagram, is not sufficient to enroll in SMILEY. Unfortunately, Messenger Kids is also not compatible with the chatbot. 

If your teen does not have a Facebook account but is willing to make one, we can help them do that during onboarding. 

If the teen or parent does not want to keep the Facebook account, they can deactivate it and still have access to Messenger to chat with SMILEY.  

• How to deactivate your Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/21437667858471 

How to use Messenger with a deactivated Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/1526848634305688 

Teens don’t have to use their “real” Facebook account to use SMILEY. For example, if they have multiple accounts, or if they have a “spam” account, they can choose which one they feel most comfortable using. All the chatbot will see is their username. All other information will be programmed into the database by Emma during onboarding.