The field of digital mental health is advancing at a rapid pace. Passively collected data from user engagements with digital tools and services continue to contribute new insights into mental health and illness. As the field of digital mental health grows, a concerning norm has been established -- digital service users are given little say over how their data is collected, shared, or used to generate revenue for private companies. Given a long history of service user exclusion from data collection practices, we propose an alternative approach that is attentive to this history: the consent-forward paradigm. This paradigm embeds principles of affirmative consent in the design of digital mental health tools and services, strengthening trust through designing around individual choices and needs, and proactively protecting users from unexpected harm. In this perspective, we outline practical steps to implement this paradigm, toward ensuring that people searching for care have the safest experiences possible.

翻译：数字心理健康领域正以极快速度发展。通过用户与数字工具及服务的互动被动收集的数据，持续为心理健康与疾病研究提供新见解。随着数字心理健康领域的壮大，一种令人担忧的常态已然形成——数字服务用户对于自身数据如何被收集、共享或用于为私营企业创造收益几乎没有发言权。鉴于服务用户长期被排除在数据收集实践之外的历史，我们提出一种关注这一历史的替代方案：主动同意范式。该范式将肯定性同意原则嵌入数字心理健康工具与服务的设计中，通过围绕个人选择与需求进行设计强化信任，并主动保护用户免受意外伤害。在本文观点中，我们概述了实施该范式的实践步骤，旨在确保寻求护理的人们能够获得尽可能安全的体验。