Harmful effects of screens on young people | School management sounds the alarm

(Quebec) Quebec students have difficulty writing, expressing themselves and socializing, nothing less, according to school principals.

On Tuesday, the Quebec Association of School Management Personnel (AQPDE) presented a brief to the special commission studying the effects of screens on the health and well-being of young people.

She explained that she had surveyed her members, who expressed widespread concern that students “have less ability to decode non-verbal and facial expressions of those they are talking to.”

Linguistically, five-year-old students speak like three-year-olds, reports the AQPDE.

Since language is closely linked to the management of emotions, more and more students are becoming disorganized in class and staff, such as management, must use coercive measures to intervene.

“Our management has noted that this practice was rarely necessary in our primary schools three or four years ago,” the AQPDE emphasizes in its brief.

Students would have poorer fine motor skills and more difficulty learning to write, which could be explained by the presence of touch screens at home and the reduction in time spent drawing and crafting.

In terms of social relations, school principals say they have noticed that students have difficulty making contact with each other.

“We feel that they no longer know how to relate, so it’s a big loss. […] social skills,” particularly in preschool, where “the management of conflict situations between students is only increasing,” it is reported.

In addition, social networks bring new concerns. In primary school, young girls arrive in class with anti-wrinkle cream, the merits of which are praised by influencers.

Other young people want to be exempted from their physical education classes because they fear being filmed.

Staff and management also share this concern about being filmed or recorded, according to the AQPDE, which would welcome the deployment of an awareness campaign aimed at parents.

Shift to second gear

It is time to move up a gear to mark out screens, by encouraging several actors in society, not just individuals, to take responsibility, according to French epidemiologist researcher Jonathan Bernard.

“For the moment, we are addressing individuals, we must do this, we must do that. We have not really moved up a gear to also constrain the actors, to make them responsible for the perverse effects that they can cause on health,” he declared.

Mr. Bernard recommends that governments put in place “boundaries” or “frameworks.” In France, for example, they said “no screens before the age of three” and no social networks before the age of 15 without parental consent.

Cell phones have also been completely banned in high school.

Very quickly, it will also be necessary to make the major platforms responsible, in particular so that they limit “addictive concepts” such as infinite scrolling, Mr. Bernard affirmed.

Because studies on the harmful effects of screens are increasingly “robust” and “consensual”, especially with regard to sleep, sedentary lifestyle, obesity and vision, added French neurologist Servane Mouton.

Not to mention language development, emotion management, attention span and the mental health of young people, all issues that are the subject of increasingly “rich” studies around the world.

M^me Mouton reminded Quebec elected officials that screens are not essential to a child’s development. “It’s not a necessity to make them a fulfilled being,” she said.

“A real public health issue”

Describing the situation as a “real public health issue,” the president and CEO of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) recommended greater “digital sobriety” on Tuesday.

Pierre-Gerlier Forest says he is relying on current scientific knowledge to call for the implementation of “structural, multifaceted and coherent actions between environments, beyond individual responsibility.”

For example, reducing screen time in a school context should be considered for both educational uses in the classroom, leisure and childcare services.

Currently, in Quebec, certain policies implemented by different ministries have objectives that are not necessarily aligned, underlines the INSPQ.

The institute proposes three main objectives to guide public action: delay the use of screens, reduce time and exposure, especially when there is no added educational value, and reduce harm.

Consultations will continue until September 26. The special commission must also tour schools, before submitting its report by May 30, 2025 at the latest.