OCA Wellbeing App vs Aileen

A wellbeing app provided by the Open College of the Arts to encourage and support students and staff to think about their wellbeing, engage in creative activities designed to support wellbeing, create positive habits to sustain wellbeing, and to increase awareness of services available within OCA and our local communities.

Designed with input from a team of psychologists and experts in child development and mental health, the overarching story was written by recent U.K. Comics Laureate, Hannah Berry. Built specifically for children ages 7-10, the Aileen app is a fun way for curious kids to play with a real but guard-railed A.I. that models and promotes healthier media diets and offers subtle wellbeing messaging. It has robust, age-appropriate, protections in place. It offers a healthy, highly-curated, chatbot A.I. experience featuring pop-out activities which invite kids off their devices and into the real-world, along with story-based games, quests, conversations, and, of course, rewards! The Aileen App and the A2Z Podcasts have been created to help kids explore and learn healthy ways of relating to others, and to support parents who are concerned about their children’s media diets. Founded on the latest child development and psychology research, and produced in partnership with the School of Kindness in the UK, the Aileen App invites kids to experience the world off-screen by sending them on fun and creative missions to do things, make things, learn mental health hacks, and have good conversations with the trusted adults in their lives. While the app is NOT THERAPEUTIC and is NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MENTAL HEALTH CARE, it does offer a healthier experience for kids who want to play with a real A.I. It was developed and realised by ethical digital media experts with input from primary school safeguarding leads. It’s also very entertaining, especially when Aileen is wearing silly hats.