Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on May 12th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Jennifer Heifferon & Alanna Powers-O'Brien.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

As adolescence becomes increasingly digital, public discourse tends to focus on screen time, platform design, and online harms. Yet alongside these concerns, a parallel transformation has unfolded: the steady erosion of physical spaces meant for teens. What happens to youth social life when the outside world contracts? This talk argues that the rise of digital adolescence must be understood alongside the decline of third places—low-barrier environments beyond home and school that once supported informal peer culture and autonomy. Drawing on original statewide data from caregiver focus groups and a survey of more than 1,000 teens, we examine how young people navigate belonging amid shrinking real-world options. By reframing youth technology use as intertwined with social infrastructure, this research raises a new policy question: What would it mean to treat third places as essential civic infrastructure for youth in a digital age?
 

About the Speaker:

Jennifer Heifferon is the Child Well-Being Program Director at the California Partners Project, where she leads research and cross-sector initiatives focused on youth development in a digital age. Her work examines how technology, family systems, and community environments intersect to shape adolescent well-being, with an emphasis on translating lived experience and empirical research into insights for families, educators, and civic decision-makers. Jennifer’s background bridges K–12 education as a teacher, learning specialist, and equity leader, formal training and facilitation in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ongoing leadership in youth sports coaching. Prior to her work in education, she worked in digital media as an interactive producer. She holds a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and an MA in Teaching from the University of San Francisco.
 

Alanna Powers-O'Brien is the Research Specialist for the Family Online Safety Institute, managing FOSI's research projects. She is passionate about creating safer experiences for kids and families online. Alanna has created several resources and managed research projects that focus on informing parents, educators and other stakeholders about concepts such as digital literacy, wellbeing and AI. Her prior experiences were in both media and education. Alanna has taught English and communications courses at both the high school and college level, and concentrated on the subject of media literacy education during her master’s program. Alanna has a master’s degree in Media Studies from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She also holds undergraduate degrees in both Public Relations and English from Penn State University, and is a Fulbright alumna.