In this info sheet
If managing your teen’s screen time feels like a challenge, you’re not alone!
Screens play an important role in our daily life as adult, but they can be useful for teens, too. However, excessive use can interfere with essential activities like socializing, sleeping, exercising, eating well, and personal hygiene. When screen time takes over, it can affect your teen’s health and well-being.
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
It’s important to 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
- According to the Québec Health Survey of High School Students 2022-2023, one in four teens (25%) spends four or more hours per day on screens for leisure and socializing, on both weekdays and weekends. These teens tend to sleep fewer hours per night.
- According to the 2022 Québec Parenting Survey, 50% of parents of teens say managing family screen use is one of their biggest challenges.
Watch our video on this subject
Does your teen often have their nose glued to a screen? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. An expert answers your questions about screen use.
To better support
En brief
Along with setting clear screen-time rules, it is important to maintain open and positive communication with your teen. And remember: You’re their first role model!
Practical resources and tools
1. For support
Are you dealing with a situation that worries you? Ask for help:
2. Specialized resources
- PAUSE, informative website
- Community addiction prevention organizations in the Montérégie region:
- Action dépendances, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
- La maison de Jonathan, Longueuil
- L’arc-en-ciel, Beloeil
- Liberté de choisir, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield
- L’inter Section, MRC d’Acton
- Maison des jeunes L’Air du Temps, Sorel-Tracy
- Satellite, Saint-Hyacinthe
- Prevention of online violence and exploitation:
- Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children.
- Protect Kids Online
- Addiction rehabilitation
3. References
- Lavoie, A. et Auger, A. (2023). Être parent au Québec en 2022. Un portrait à partir de l’Enquête québécoise sur la parentalité 2022. Institut de la statistique du Québec.
- Pause ton écran.
- Traoré, I., Simard, M. et Julien, D. (2024). Enquête québécoise sur la santé des jeunes du secondaire. Résultats de la troisième édition 2022-2023. Institut de la statistique du Québec.
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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