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Screens: helping your teen develop good habits

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If managing your teen’s screen time feels like a challenge, you’re not alone!

Screens can be useful for adults and teens too.

However, excessive use can interfere with essential activities. Teens may then neglect other things, like their social life, sleep, and activities. Their health and well-being can be affected.

Rather than making them feel guilty, support your teen in developing a more balanced relationship with screens.

To better understand

What does balanced screen use mean?

A healthy approach to screens means:

  • Not using them from morning to night without breaks
  • Setting aside screen-free moments to make room for other daily activities
  • Watching videos and chatting with friends, but also using screens to do schoolwork

During adolescence, teens are more impressionable. They also crave social validation, especially from their friends. Screens meet these needs, making them highly appealing.

While screens can be beneficial for teens, excessive use comes with risks. How much screen time is “too much”? It depends on:

  • The individual teen
  • How they are using screens
  • The content they are viewing

Risks associated with screens include:

  • Reduced physical activity and sedentary lifestyle
  • Poor sleep quality
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Difficulty focusing and lower academic performance
  • Challenges with emotional regulation
  • Increased tolerance for violence and decreased empathy
  • Difficulty distinguishing real from fake content
  • Vision problems like myopia
  • Physical discomfort (back, neck, wrist, and eye strain)
  • Negative self-image
  • Poor eating habits

Look at how screen use affects your teen rather than just the number of hours spent online.

However, if screen time dominates their day, it’s a sign that changes may be needed.

Common myths about screens

Screens and teens in Québec and the Montérégie region

  • 25%* teens spends 4 hours or more per day on screens for leisure and socializing, on both weekdays and weekends. These teens tend to sleep fewer hours per night.
  • 50%** of parents of teens say managing family screen use is one of their biggest challenges.

*Québec Health Survey of High School Students 2022-2023

**Parenting Survey, 2022

Be there for my teen

Maintain an open, non-judgmental dialogue with your teen about their online activities. You will better understand their interest in screens. You will then be able to guide them better.

Talk about how platforms and apps work, for example:
– notifications,
– “likes” and new messages,
– rewards, such as wins and level-ups in games.

All these methods create more emotions for young people. They can be addictive.
They can also include false content.

Talk about respectful behaviour online. Respect is just as important online as in-person interactions.

Help your teen think critically about their screen use. Their online habits can have long-term effects! Be critical of your own use as well. You can talk about it together. Encourage each other to reduce your screen time.

Work together to find other activities besides screens. Explore why your teen is using screens:

– To avoid being bored?
– To socialize?
– To feel valued?

This insight can help you identify underlying needs.

Encourage your teen to reflect on their online friendships. Who are they connecting with? How well do they know these people? What makes someone trustworthy online?

Agree on family-wide rules for:
– Daily screen time limits.
– Appropriate usage times.
– Types of use Age
– Aappropriate access to social media.

Establish and enforce screen-time rules when introducing a new device. It is easier to set boundaries at the start than to change habits later. For guidance, see 
PAUSE

Configure computers, smart devices, and Wi-Fi networks to:
– Ask for passwords.
– Limit usage time.
– Apply security filters.
– Etc.

Watch this vidéos:
On-line security-part 1
On-line security-part 2

Keep screens out of bedrooms. Use an alarm clock instead of a phone for waking up.

Turn off screens at least an hour before bedtime. The brain needs to wind down before sleep.

Disable the Wi-Fi overnight—no one needs it while sleeping!

Encourage screen use in common areas of the home for easier supervision, discussion and shared viewing.

Have screen-free family meals.

Avoid screen use—especially stimulating content—before school or homework, as it can hinder concentration.

Along with setting clear screen-time rules, imaintain open and positive communication with your teen.

Practical resources and tools

1. For support

Are you dealing with a situation that worries you? Ask for help:

2. Specialized resources

3. References

This fact sheet was created in collaboration with:

  • The directors of the addiction prevention organizations L’Arc-en-ciel, La maison de Jonathan, Liberté de choisir and Satellite
  • Camille Paquet, navigator, École en santé, CISSS de la Montérégie-Est
  • Nancy Lo, human relations officer – school mental health promotion and prevention, Direction de santé publique de la Montérégie

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