Aura Research Shows Teens' Digital Wellbeing Plummets; Launches First-of-its-Kind Digital Wellbeing Score for Kids and Teens

New feature in Aura Parents backed by proprietary research from Aura's team of clinical psychologists connecting kids' online behaviors to their overall sense of wellbeing

BOSTON, March 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Aura, a leading AI-powered online safety platform for individuals and families, today unveiled its Digital Wellbeing Score, a first-of-its-kind tool to support the development of healthy device habits, now available in the Aura Parents parental monitoring app. Backed by the company's proprietary research, the Digital Wellbeing Score analyzes how and when a child uses their device and determines if the observed behaviors are associated with kids who reported that they felt down, stressed or tired in research from Aura's team of clinical psychologists.

Aura debuted the Digital Wellbeing Score and the findings from its supporting research, State of the Youth: A Digital Wellbeing Index, during the 2026 Common Sense Media Summit for Kids and Families in San Francisco.

A Crisis of Digital Wellbeing

Aura's team of clinical psychologists and data scientists analyzed 17 dimensions of digital life, as observed in the company's research study, Techwise, and established a Digital Wellbeing Index, which scores wellbeing from 0-100.

Scores of 54 or below out of 100 indicate device habits associated with low digital wellbeing. In Aura research, kids and teens who had low digital wellbeing scores self-reported that they feel higher levels of stress, experience poorer sleep and generally report lower moods than their high digital wellbeing peers.

Most concerning, digital wellbeing appears to decline with age. More than 60% of 16–17-year-olds fall into the low wellbeing category, compared to fewer than 40% of kids ages 8–15.

"What we observed among those with low digital wellbeing scores is hypervigilant, restless device use that disrupts other aspects of life," said Dr. Scott Kollins, Aura's Chief Medical Officer. "As kids and teens mature and they gain more freedom, digital wellbeing plummets, suggesting an inability to self-regulate unhealthy digital behaviors."

For those with low digital wellbeing:

• It's about habits, not just hours: These kids check their phones 7x more, send 5x more messages and switch apps 3x more than peers with higher wellbeing.
  
  
• Use is more fragmented and late-night: They spend half as long per session but 3x more time on devices overnight.
  
  
• Disengagement takes longer: They take 2x longer to fully disengage from devices after bedtime.

Introducing the Aura Parents Digital Wellbeing Score

The Aura Parents Digital Wellbeing Score is an easy-to-digest pulse of how your kids' device use could be impacting their overall wellbeing. Over the first three days of use, Aura Parents establishes a personalized baseline value for every child. Then, Aura Parents continually monitors behaviors and calculates a rolling 7-day average Digital Wellbeing Score, which compares their recent behavior to their baseline normal behaviors.

In the Aura Parents app, users will be able to see if a child's digital behaviors are consistently healthy, improving, declining or if they present persistent concerns. This allows parents to better understand when a low score indicates a blip in behavior or truly requires their attention.

The Digital Wellbeing Score is not a mental health tool. It does not diagnose conditions or measure a child's emotions. If a child's score is low, it means their device habits resemble those of kids and teens in our research who reported experiencing high stress, poor sleep, low moods or more isolation.

The Digital Wellbeing Score is now available within Aura Parents subscriptions, starting at $10 per month.

Kids Recognize The Pressure to Be "Always On"

To complement the findings illustrated by the Digital Wellbeing Index, Aura partnered with Talker Research to survey 2,000 children ages 11–17. This survey asked kids and teens about the social pressure they feel to be connected and the role of technology in their peer relationships.

The message from kids is clear: what happens online doesn't stay online.

• Screens are Today's Most Powerful Peer Pressure: Nearly half (44%) of kids feel pressured to be online—higher than pressure to smoke or vape (31%), ditch class (28%) or drink (24%).

• Offline Can Mean Left Out: 1 in 2 kids have felt excluded by friends for not being in the same online groups or on the same social media platforms.

• It's a Big, Overwhelming Digital World: Over half (56%) feel very or somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of information online.

• Social Stress Drives Screen Time: Over half (55%) say they use their phones or tablets much more or somewhat more than usual when their social life feels stressful.

Aura Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Kollins offers this guidance: "Start teaching kids how to regulate their device use early. Simple strategies like encouraging predictable routines, allowing regular breaks from screens, and modeling healthy tech habits can help reduce digital stress and support overall wellbeing. This way, as teens mature, gain independence and begin feeling the social pressure to be constantly connected, they will have the skills to self-regulate.

For those with teens today, pay attention to the patterns of their device use. Notice when nighttime use increases or when it seems they are constantly checking their phone, as these may be signs of low digital wellbeing. Rather than simply restricting access to technology, help teens build better habits so that they can maintain their social outlet, while building skills to disconnect that will last a lifetime."

For a deeper look at how kids are experiencing digital stress, social pressures and nighttime device use, read the full report here. Families can also find tips, resources and stay up to date on the latest tools from Aura at aura.com/parents.

About Aura:
Aura is one of the fastest-growing online safety solutions for individuals and families. Whether you're protecting yourself, your kids, or your aging loved ones, Aura meets your needs at every stage of life. From real-time threat detection and scam alerts to tools that help parents protect their kids from predators, cyberbullying, and tech-driven mental health risks, Aura empowers families to thrive in the digital world. Learn more at aura.com.

Aura Digital Wellbeing Index Methodology
Data for this report derives from three primary analytical frameworks applied to the Aura platform. The first is proprietary, anonymized telemetry from children and adolescents aged 8–17, stratified into key developmental cohorts to analyze app adoption, usage intensity and seasonal behavioral trends. The second source is Aura's Digital Wellbeing Index (DWI), a composite score examining 17 dimensions of digital life, anchored in real-world evidence stemming from Aura's Techwise study that aggregates sleep health, self-regulation, and engagement quality to derive a score that best predicts psychological well-being and digital stress. The third source integrates the Digital Stress Scale (DSS) with Natural Language Processing (NLP), categorizing users by stress levels and analyzing message content to correlate emotional sentiment with digital wellbeing markers.

Talker Methodology

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 American children aged 11 to 17 who have access to the internet.
The survey was commissioned by Aura and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Feb. 3 and Feb. 9, 2026. A link to the questionnaire can be found here. To view the complete methodology as part of AAPOR's Transparency Initiative, please visit the Talker Research Process and Methodology page.

SOURCE Aura