Would you trust your phone to detect your mood?

Sometimes my son tells me he is fine when he is clearly not fine. I know that to be true, because right after he tells me he is fine, he stomps up the stairs, and slams the door to his room.

We all do this - not necessarily the stomping part, but the claiming an emotion we are not actually feeling. And when we are adults, that is really on us to be able to clearly communicate our emotions accurately. For our children - including our teenagers - we may need more than words to tell us what is really going on.

Don't worry, there may be an app for that.

Some phone apps are being developed to monitor your teen's mental health - specifically to alert parents to depression. Typing speed, word choice, the phone tracking a teen's location as "mostly at home" could be an early warning signal that your child may not actually be ready to talk about. And since so many of our teens suffer from depression, getting an early warning system in place would get them the help they need much faster.

It's a little creepy, yes, but I think we all know at this point how much our phones are spying on us. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get something good out of it.

Would you want your teen's phone to alert you to potential signs of depression? Talk to me about it in the comments.