MIT graduate launches free online mental health support for youth
The tech nonprofit, founded by an MIT Media Lab PhD graduate, aims to reach young people where they are online with self-guided tutorials and anonymous peer support.
Koko, a tech nonprofit founded by Rob Morris, has launched a free mental health support platform designed for young people. The initiative grew out of Morris’s doctoral research at the MIT Media Lab and aims to address youth mental health by meeting users on the digital platforms they already use.
Morris, who holds an SM and PhD from MIT, was inspired to create the service after experiencing depression as a teenager. He noted that he lacked exposure to healthy coping strategies and had no vocabulary for his symptoms at the time. This personal experience has driven his work to provide accessible resources for a generation that may face similar barriers to understanding their mental health.
The Koko platform operates across major social media and messaging services, including TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, WhatsApp, and Telegram. In partnership with these platforms, the service offers free interventions that are backed by research and informed by an external ethics advisory board. The goal is to provide immediate, low-barrier access to support without requiring users to seek out traditional clinical settings.
Users can access self-guided tutorials to help themselves manage their mental health. Additionally, the platform facilitates anonymous peer support, allowing young people to share brief messages of support with one another. This peer-to-peer component is designed to foster community and reduce isolation among users who may be struggling.
The service is available to users in nearly 200 countries. By integrating directly into popular messaging and social applications, Koko seeks to normalise mental health conversations and provide help in environments where young people are already active and comfortable.
The launch of Koko represents a shift in how mental health resources are distributed, moving away from institutional settings to the digital spaces where youth spend significant time. The platform’s reliance on research and ethical oversight aims to ensure that these online interventions are safe and effective for a global audience.
While the specific clinical outcomes of the self-guided tutorials and anonymous messaging are not detailed in the source material, the organisation emphasises that its approach is grounded in research. The involvement of an external ethics advisory board further underscores the organisation’s commitment to responsible delivery of mental health support.
