Has Your Teen Tried TalkSpace?

 This offering from the City of Seattle and SPS recently came onto my radar and I don't know how I missed it. 

I do want to do a complete post on all the mental health supports out there for Seattle teens because I find it interesting that so many entities have something going. Until then, a reporter is looking for parent or teen input if you have used TalkSpace.

I'm a mom and journalist looking to connect with families who have experiences with Talkspace for teens, the City of Seattle's free online therapy for young people. This is for reporting I'm doing with Proof, a new nonprofit newsroom focused on AI. I would very much appreciate hearing about how the platform worked for your teenager and if you ran across any privacy or quality concerns. You can reach out to me directly at rebecca@proofnews.org. Thank you for considering!

Comments

Cohen said…
I'm so glad someone is looking into this, especially a reporter focusing on AI and data privacy. When SPS and the City first announced the Talkspace partnership, my immediate thought was about data harvesting. We are essentially handing over our teens' most vulnerable thoughts and mental health data to a massive tech company. Even if they claim it's 'HIPAA compliant,' the terms of service on these apps are often terrifyingly broad regarding anonymized or aggregated data for training algorithms. I opted my daughter out of it. We need real, fully funded, in-building counselors for our kids, not outsourced gig-economy therapy apps.
4/23/26, 4:58 PM
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