(Quebec) More than half of five-year-old children spend an hour or more per day in front of a screen, underlines the Observatory of Toddlers in a report published Wednesday.
“As technological tools evolve at great speed and their footprint in our daily lives increases, it is time for us to have a conversation about the role they play in the lives of our little ones,” writes its director Julie Cailliau.
The observatory’s report consists of a review of existing scientific literature.
Among other things, it mentions:Quebec survey on the preschool pathway of kindergarten children 2022which found that 52% of five-year-old preschoolers spent an hour or more a day in front of a screen.
Remember that the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends limiting screen time to one hour or less for children aged two to five; for children under two, all exposure should be avoided.
Asked about this on Wednesday, the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, added that ideally, for children aged two to five, the hour spent in front of a screen would be “interactive”.
“What we’re concerned about is that they’re being given screen time as a reward, or alone in their corner. It needs to be interactive, with a parent or an educational goal. That’s what needs to be done,” he said.
Toddlers are exposed to screens not only at home, but also at grandparents’ houses, in public spaces, at daycare or in kindergarten.
By 2023, nearly 70% of Quebec public schools had integrated digital technology into kindergarten, according to the observatory, which reports that “over the course of the day, screen time accumulates without it always being possible to do a complete count.”
Excessive screen use may impair children’s ability to concentrate, pay attention and self-regulate, as well as harm their socio-emotional, physical, neurological, cognitive and language development, and affect their vision and sleep.
Currently, the Ministry of Education does not issue any guidelines or recommendations on the use of screens in a school context.
There Quebec Strategy on Screen Use and Youth Health 2022-2025 The Ministry of Health and Social Services specifies, however, that educational environments must “avoid using screens as rewards or during […] the snack”.
For its part, the regulation on educational child care services from the Ministry of the Family indicates that the use of screens must be sporadic, not exceed 30 minutes per day and be integrated into the educational program.
But no data on the screen time of children in educational childcare services, the context of use and the content viewed has been collected to date, noted the Observatory for Toddlers.
The organization reminds us that early childhood is a pivotal time, and that nothing is better for the development of young children than interactions, in the real world, with those around them and their environment.
He is also concerned that the digital environment in which children are immersed compromises their right to grow up in a “healthy and safe” environment: free and very popular applications introduce them to the world of games of chance and money.
According to a Léger survey conducted last May, 49% of parents are unaware that toddlers can be exposed to mechanisms that resemble those found in video lottery terminals when they play free online games.
Furthermore, among parents of children aged five or under, 51% find that they use their cellphones too much when spending time with their child, according to the 2022 Quebec Parenting Survey.
In light of these findings, the Toddler Observatory advocates for the “precautionary principle.” The organization will present a brief to the special commission tasked with studying the effects of screens on young people on September 26.