The pandemic rolled out the all-on-screen red carpet, giving it the label of essential service: now, between our guilty dependencies on all the leisure functions of our digital devices, we would be able to have a clear conscience, being ” obliged ”to go through the screen for work or for school. But at what cost ?
The desire of the Government of Quebec to draft a Strategy on the use of screens and the health of young people is therefore very welcome – and necessary.
The Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, concluded the second part at the beginning of the week a consultation on the impact of screen time on the health of young people. A first forum brought together several stakeholders in February 2020, but the pandemic had slowed the ardor of the Ministry of Health, busy elsewhere, we understand. Quebec’s goal is to arrive with an action plan by the end of 2021.
We may be surprised a priori that the government is thinking of interfering in a field of action as private as that of time spent in front of a screen, whatever it is (phone, tablet, television, computer or video game). Given the rampant use of digital technology in the classroom, it is on the contrary beneficial that the authorities decide to tackle a phenomenon as widespread as it is unknown.
Indeed, although studies exist to measure certain aspects of the effects, positive or negative, of screen time among young people, science has not arrived at clear findings to the point where public policies are aligned. Documenting the problem using evidence-based data and then acting in all coherence, particularly in the field of schools, seems as urgent as it is essential.
Data released by Quebec states that 64% of young people aged 12 to 19 now devote more than 15 hours per week to sedentary behaviors in front of a screen. The Canadian Pediatric Society estimates that teens spend 7.5 hours a day – per day, yes – in front of a screen, school and recreation combined, 20% of that time on social media. Other dizzying data? Paediatricians believe that three hours of TV a day among five-year-olds will lead to a high prevalence of behavioral problems two years later, on the cusp of their seventh birthday. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, among other organizations that have looked into the issue, recommends a maximum of two hours of screen time per day across all screens, and not a minute longer, for ages 5 to 17. years. Is this the target balance?
The objective pursued is not to eradicate or demonize screens, but rather, first of all, to know exactly what are the adverse health effects of prolonged exposure and, secondly, to be able to achieve a balance, this magical dosage that would make it possible to take advantage of their benefits while avoiding exposure to their negative consequences. Among these, in addition to extreme cases such as cyberbullying or digital addiction, there are of course negative effects on sleep, musculoskeletal disorders, sedentary lifestyle, depression, vision problems and obesity.
In the very interesting brief he published this summer in view of the consultation led by Minister Carmant, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) welcomes the imminence of a national strategy, in particular so that we can finally paint a portrait and a complete analysis of the risks and benefits of using screens in schools.
The INSPQ also pleads for us to calculate screen time by never forgetting to add its use in class to that of the home. And to ensure that, in all of its actions in the digital field, the Government of Quebec itself is consistent. He will indeed have to auscultate himself, by going snooping in particular on the education side, where the first attempts to use tablets in the classroom were made without any conclusive scientific literature being available.
In a notice issued at the end of 2020, the Superior Council of Education also recommended that the Quebec school educate IN digital and not only THROUGH digital, as if we had largely focused on the technical aspect of the thing without dwelling too much on its intrinsic components.
In its self-examination, the government must also not neglect two essential aspects which affect the school, and which we have seen to emerge in an obvious way during the pandemic: the lack of training of the personnel, who do not face difficulties. equally the challenges linked to digital education; and digital inequalities, starting with the fact that not all children in Quebec have equal access to the Internet or to the necessary devices.
The challenges are many, but now it is a matter of public health.
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