Stanford Youth Study: US Parents & Kids (Age 9–13)

What you'll do

This is an academic study, not AI training work. Mercor is recruiting families for the Youth Well-being Project, run by Stanford University with Bocconi University, which looks at how smartphones and digital tools affect children and their families. Mercor handles recruitment and payment; the research questions belong to the universities.

Over roughly eight weeks starting in January, you and one child take part together:

• You complete a few short online surveys, plus occasional text-message check-ins
• You install a parental-control app on your child's phone and leave it installed for the whole study period
• Your child completes two short online surveys and a few text-message check-ins

Active time is light. Most of the eight weeks is simply the app sitting on the phone, with surveys at intervals. Applications are open now so the January cohort can be confirmed in advance.

Who qualifies

• A parent or guardian based in the United States
• A child aged 9 to 13
• The child has their own smartphone with an active SIM card and a working phone number; a tablet, a Wi-Fi-only device or a phone without a SIM does not qualify, because the app goes on the child's phone
• You and your child are both willing to take part
• One child per household

No professional background or prior Mercor experience is asked for. The qualification is your family situation.

What it pays

A flat fee of $110, paid once when the study is completed. Mercor's board card shows the figure as "$110 / hour", but the ad's own text is clear that it is a single payment for the whole eight weeks, not an hourly rate. The ad's standard terms say payment is made weekly via Stripe or Wise for services rendered, which in practice means one payout after you finish.

The parental-control app

This is the part to think about before applying. The study requires monitoring software on your child's phone for about two months, and the ad does not say what data the app collects, who can see it, how long it is kept or whether it is removed automatically at the end. Those are reasonable questions to ask the study team before you install anything, and it is worth talking it through with your child too, since they are a participant in their own right.

Worth knowing

Good:

• A university-led study with a clear purpose and a defined eight-week window
• Light time commitment once the app is installed
• Fully remote, done on your own schedule
• Applying now secures a place ahead of the January start

Less good:

• $110 for eight weeks of participation is modest, even if the active time is small
• The SIM-card requirement rules out many families whose children use a tablet or a Wi-Fi-only phone
• Monitoring software on a child's phone, with data handling not described in the ad
• Payment comes only on completion, so dropping out early likely means no pay
• H-1B and STEM OPT holders are excluded, per the ad's contract terms

About this listing

Read on Mercor's signed-in board on 18 October 2026. Mercor dates the posting to about three months earlier and says applications are being finalised for a January start. The eligibility rules, the eight-week format and the $110 flat fee are the ad's own text. Mercor runs other one-time paid studies too, such as the Medicare Advantage Members (Devoted Health) Insight Study. See Mercor.