the digital dilemma: helping canadian children navigate mental health crisis is a ‘collective responsibility’

even as steve jobs and bill gates, the co-founders of apple and microsoft, respectively, were creating some of the most influential technology of our time, they were careful to keep the addictive devices away from their children . a decade and a half later, parents, psychologists and healthcare workers are witnessing the fallout among those who weren’t so lucky.

although the long-term consequences of an overreliance on digital devices are far from conclusive, doctors can spot the symptoms almost immediately. “kids walk into appointments with their faces buried in a screen,” says dr. michelle ponti, a pediatrician and chair of the canadian paediatric society’s (cps) digital health task force. “it’s often used as a calming strategy to help support them through an appointment.”

the task force was created in 2016 to help anyone working with children manage the risks that come with digital devices . it is comprised of a group of canadian experts, including representatives from from child psychiatry, psychology, speech-language pathology and mediasmarts, a non-profit group that focuses on digital and media literacy. while there are still gaps in the evidence connecting excessive screen time to mental health, pediatricians have seen enough red flags to take action.

from bad to worse

the pandemic, of course, was a big part of the problem. according to a survey conducted by mediasmarts in 2021, 86 per cent of canadian kids between the ages of nine and 11 had at least one account on a digital platform that requires users to be at least 13 years old. almost 80 per cent of kids between the age of nine and 17 said they had their own phone , with the majority first receiving one between the ages of 11 and 13.

the cps urges physicians to talk to parents about the “4ms” of screentime : minimizing, mitigating, mindfully using and modelling healthy behaviour. this means children under the age of two should not be able to access screens at all and those between the ages of two and five should be limited to less than an hour per day. it means mitigating the risks of screentime by prioritizing educational, age-appropriate content and watching it with your kids. perhaps most importantly, it means being mindful of how you’re using your own screens and making an effort to model healthy behaviour for those who may not have the impulse control to do so themselves.

mind over matter

the problem with social media, according to dr. viviane poupon, a neuroscientist and the president and ceo of brain canada , is that it is intentionally addictive. “it could have been designed differently,” she says. “we’re dealing with something that’s actually changing the behaviour of teenagers during a really critical window of brain development.”

finding the right balance