The amount of time Canadian youth spent on screens shot up during the pandemic. But one group of kids fared better than others, according to a new Statistics Canada study.
Youth aged 12 to 17 who were living in rural areas were 50 per cent more likely to meet screen-time recommendations than kids in urban centres, both before and during the pandemic.
Conversely, the study found that being Black or in the lowest income bracket were significantly associated with youth being less likely to meet screen-time guidelines during the pandemic.
“It’s really hard to pinpoint exactly what could be causing these different associations in different socio-demographic groups,” said Stephanie Toigo, epidemiologist for the Public Health Agency of Canada and one of the study’s authors.
But the study suggests intra-provincial variations in the enforcement of public health measures — such as curfews, school closures, distancing and messaging — could explain some of the differences between rural and urban outcomes.
Overall, the percentage of Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 who met the recommended daily screen-time guidelines dropped from 33 per cent before the pandemic to just 22 per cent in 2021. For youth living in rural areas, 27 per cent met the recommendations. The guidelines, set by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, recommend that youth spend a maximum of two hours a day on their screens.
Those whose screen time rose had “poorer self-reported mental health,” the study says.
And screen time doesn’t just impact mental health. The sedentary nature of being on a screen is unhealthy from a physical perspective, says Stephanie Prince Ware, a research scientist with the Public Health Agency of Canada and another author of the study.
“Sedentary behaviour as a whole, as a behaviour, does have detrimental effects on health outcomes,” she said.
Previous research co-authored by Prince Ware showed that rural youth more often met screen-time guidelines than urban kids even before the pandemic.
Toigo and Prince Ware hope the study’s findings influence how youth are informed about recommended screen time, both post-pandemic and in the event of another pandemic.
‘They’ll go underground’
Developing brains are especially vulnerable to excessive screen time, which can obstruct essential brain growth processes like sleep, says Emma Duerden, a neuroscientist and associate professor at the University of Western Ontario.
Duerden, who is part of a research team that uses brain imaging to study the effect of screen time on adolescent brains, says excessive screen time can potentially leave kids developmentally delayed.
Her research has also linked excessive screen time with anxiety, depression, increased aggression and worse mental health in children and youth.
On a study questionnaire, kids regularly report spending 10 hours per day on screens, or five times the recommended amount, she says. And kids’ screen time is not returning to pre-pandemic levels.
“There are very few that actually meet guidelines,” she said.
However, some experts say that research that focuses solely on how much time kids spend peering at a screen is ineffective.
Problematic internet use, like internet addiction, and its causes should be paid more attention than the amount of time youth spend on their screens, says Dr. Jennifer Shapka, a developmental psychologist at the University of British Columbia.
Shapka has not seen a clear link between overall internet use and problematic internet use in her research, which focuses on how technology affects children and adolescents.
“They’re not even correlated in my data,” she said.
Underlying mental health issues like anxiety, depression or a lack of social connection with friends in real life or online are the root of problematic internet use, she says. In her view, the conversation about kids and screen time should be more nuanced.
“Screen technology is here, it’s not going backwards, so it doesn’t help us to just kind of put our head in the sand.”
“We know that they’ll go underground with it, they’ll use their friends, they’ll do whatever they can to get on screens, even if parents are controlling about it.”
Kids report that social connection is the most important activity they engage in online, says Shapka. And kids without this connection experience higher rates of problematic internet use.
School closures during the pandemic took away vital face-to-face social interaction. But video calling and messaging helped young Canadians maintain their connections with friends and family.
“Developmentally, they are social creatures,” said Shapka. “Most kids spend as much time as they can online because that’s where their social worlds are.”
Duerden notes that most parents did not grow up in a world of screens like their kids. This can make it difficult for parents to understand the online screen culture.
But she has some advice for parents.
She encourages parents to have open discussions with their kids about screen time, especially if it’s problematic. She also recommends parents schedule screen-free times and screen-free zones at home and model healthy screen-time behaviour.
“I think for parents there’s so much being placed on them, because it’s really them in the home regulating these things.”
