MENTAL_HEALTH
DISCLAIMER & SAFE MESSAGING POLICY — EFFECTIVE MARCH 30, 2026
IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS RIGHT NOW
Call or Text 988 · Text HOME to 741741 · Call 911
These services are free, confidential, and available 24/7. BalanceBoard is not a crisis service.
1. BalanceBoard Is Not a Medical Service
BalanceBoard is a student productivity and wellness tracking tool. It is not a mental health treatment platform, clinical service, digital therapeutic, or medical device.
Nothing on BalanceBoard — including the AI Buddy, AI Wellness Coach, peer support forums, vent rooms, or any other feature — constitutes:
- Medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment
- Mental health therapy, counseling, or psychotherapy
- Psychiatric evaluation or medication guidance
- Crisis intervention services
- A substitute for professional mental health care
If you are experiencing significant mental health challenges — including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, suicidal thoughts, or trauma — please seek help from a qualified mental health professional. Your school counselor is a great first point of contact and can refer you to appropriate resources.
2. What BalanceBoard's Wellness Tools Actually Do
Our wellness features are designed to:
- Track self-reported metrics (mood, sleep, energy, stress) to help you notice patterns over time
- Encourage healthy daily habits (hydration, exercise, breaks, breathing) through gamified tracking
- Provide general wellness education based on research-backed principles (sleep hygiene, stress management)
- Detect stress signals in your interactions and recommend self-care tools available in the app
- Create a safe space for anonymous peer connection so you know you're not alone in your struggles
These tools work best as complements to professional care and healthy lifestyle practices — not as replacements for them.
3. Limitations of AI Wellness Features
What the AI Cannot Do
- The AI Wellness Coach analyzes only the data you've entered into BalanceBoard — it does not know your full medical history, medications, trauma history, or circumstances
- It cannot determine whether your symptoms are indicative of a diagnosable condition
- It may misinterpret your messages or miss important context
- AI "insights" are generated algorithmically — they are educational suggestions, not clinical assessments
- The AI is not empathetic in a human sense — it processes text, it doesn't truly understand your pain
For this reason, even if the AI tells you something feels positive or normalized (e.g., "some stress is normal during exam season"), this should never discourage you from seeking professional help if you feel you need it.
4. Peer Support Limitations
BalanceBoard's peer support features (Vent Rooms, Study Pods, Peer Support Forum) connect students anonymously. We want to be clear about what peer support can and cannot provide:
Peer Support Can:
- Help you feel less alone in your struggles
- Share study strategies and academic tips
- Provide validation and emotional support
- Point you to helpful resources
- Help process shared experiences (exam stress, family pressure)
Peer Support Cannot:
- Replace professional therapy or counseling
- Provide clinical assessment or diagnosis
- Prescribe or recommend medications
- Contact emergency services on your behalf
- Guarantee the mental health expertise of peers
Important: Peers in our community are other students, not trained mental health professionals. Their advice — however well-intentioned — should not replace guidance from a counselor, therapist, or doctor.
5. Safe Messaging Guidelines
BalanceBoard follows established safe messaging guidelines on suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders developed by organizations including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), and NEDA. These guidelines inform how our AI responds, how we moderate community content, and how we design our platform.
Suicide & Self-Harm
BalanceBoard will not display detailed methods of self-harm or suicide. When these topics arise in AI conversations or peer posts, we redirect to crisis resources. We moderate content containing explicit self-harm descriptions in community spaces.
Eating Disorders
We do not display content that promotes or glamorizes disordered eating, extreme dieting, or "thinspo." Wellness metrics (e.g., food tracking) are framed around nourishment and energy, not weight loss or calorie restriction.
Substance Use
BalanceBoard does not display content promoting drug or alcohol use among minors. If students disclose substance use in AI conversations, we respond with resources, not judgment.
Contagion Effect Prevention
Research shows that detailed coverage of suicide methods can contribute to "contagion" effects. BalanceBoard takes this seriously — our community moderation guidelines prohibit sharing suicide methods, and our AI is trained never to provide them.
6. Legal Context — Why This Matters
Several significant legal developments inform how BalanceBoard approaches mental health content for minors:
MDL 3047 — Social Media & Teen Mental Health (2023-Ongoing)
More than 40 U.S. states joined a federal multidistrict litigation against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and ByteDance, alleging their platforms contributed to the teen mental health crisis through addictive design. This litigation underscores the legal responsibility platforms have to minors. BalanceBoard is designed with anti-addictive principles: no infinite scroll, no engagement-maximizing algorithms, no notification manipulation.
Netflix — "13 Reasons Why" (2019-2021)
Research following the release of "13 Reasons Why" documented statistically significant increases in teen suicide rates, demonstrating the real-world impact of content on vulnerable youth. Platforms that serve minors bear responsibility for the mental health impact of their content. BalanceBoard never glorifies mental health struggles and always pairs discussion of difficult topics with resources and professional guidance.
Character.AI Teen Safety Lawsuits (2024-2025)
Multiple lawsuits were filed against Character.AI alleging that its AI chatbot formed inappropriate emotional attachments with teens and, in at least one case, allegedly contributed to a teen's death. BalanceBoard's AI is explicitly restricted from simulating personal relationships, emotional dependency, or open-ended companionship. Our AI knows its lane: task management and wellness monitoring only.
FTC "Children as Collateral Damage" (2024)
The FTC published guidance emphasizing that commercial surveillance practices that harm children's mental health may violate the FTC Act. BalanceBoard does not engage in commercial surveillance, behavioral profiling, or data monetization.
These cases shape our design philosophy: BalanceBoard builds tools that support teen mental health, not exploit it. We monitor this legal landscape continuously and update our policies accordingly.
7. When to Seek Professional Help
Please consider talking to a mental health professional if you experience any of the following for more than two weeks:
- Persistent sadness, emptiness, or hopelessness
- Loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy
- Significant changes in sleep (too much or too little)
- Significant changes in appetite or weight
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt
- Recurring thoughts of death or suicide
- Panic attacks, severe anxiety, or constant worry
- Engaging in self-harm behaviors
- Substance use to cope with emotions
Your school counselor can help connect you to free or low-cost mental health services in your area. You don't need to be in crisis to reach out.
8. Future Counselor Integration
BalanceBoard is developing an optional feature that will allow licensed school counselors to access a student's wellness summary with explicit, revocable student consent. Before this feature launches:
- It will be completely opt-in — no counselor will see your data by default
- Only licensed, school-verified counselors will have access
- You will see exactly what data your counselor can view
- You can revoke access at any time
- This Privacy Policy will be updated before the feature goes live
- Separate, explicit consent will be required (not bundled with account creation)
If you are interested in having your counselor connected to BalanceBoard, encourage them to reach out to support@balanceboard.app.
Crisis & Mental Health Resources
Immediate Crisis — Available 24/7
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988
US — Free, confidential
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741
US — Free, confidential
Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ Youth)
1-866-488-7386
Text START to 678-678
Teen Line
310-855-4673
Text TEEN to 839863
SAMHSA National Helpline
1-800-662-4357
Substance use & mental health
National Eating Disorders
1-800-931-2237
Text "NEDA" to 741741
Emergency Services
911
For immediate physical danger
International Resources
findahelpline.com
Crisis lines worldwide
School Resources
Your school counselor is trained to help with both academic stress and mental health challenges. You can visit them during school hours or ask a trusted teacher to connect you. You do not need to be in crisis to see a school counselor.