Quebec students participate in screen time commission

Quebec school students participated in a youth screen time commission.

A committee made up of all four of the province’s main political parties visited 18 schools in six regions of Quebec to speak to teens and children about screen time.

Members of the “Special Commission on the Impacts of Screens and Social Networks on the Health and Development of Young People” were at Paul-Jarry Elementary School in Lachine to present an update on their findings and discuss the issues that need to be addressed to reduce harm to young people.

“The thing that we heard that was the most concerning and kind of obvious is about social media and how a lot of girls feel like there’s a regression of feminism and much more misogyny present in social media,” said Elisabeth Prass, Quebec Liberal Party MNA for D’Arcy-McGee and Opposition spokesperson on mental health. “The whole notion of influencers and the influence they have over kids who sponsor different products to kids.”

“They know there’s a problem. They know they’re hooked on it, on their social media, on their phones. And they wanna resolve the problem,” said Enrico Ciccone, Quebec Liberal Party MNA for Marquette and Commission Vice-Chair.

In a survey conducted in February by La Fédération des comités de parents du Québec and the English Parents Committee Association, 14,000 parents in Quebec identified screen time as their top concern.

“What we found was that children that have special needs are three to four times more frequently using screens,” said Katherine Korakakis, president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec. “And we found that the older you get, the more time you’re spending on screens and that’s impacting your mental health, your ability to connect with people. So overall, a lot of worries for families across Quebec.”

The Commission faces challenges they say with the recent shutdown of TikTok Canada’s offices, and trying to connect with Meta — Facebook and Instagram’s parent company — which cancelled a recently planned meeting with them.

CAQ MNA and commission president Amélie Dionne indicated there were still discussions with Meta Canada for a possible appearance. “There was a question of availability, we are continuing our discussions, the communication channel is open with Meta,” she said.

“We will continue to work with Meta. We will use all the tools we have at the National Assembly. … We have the power to subpoena, but we do not hope to go that far,” added Ciccone.

The commission adds that they are committed to pursuing discussions with all social media platforms, in addition to other consultations.

“This is very rare, in the history of the National Assembly, that there’s a commission like this. It’s because we are all getting together, one reason, an important reason in our society,” said Ciccone.

“There’ll be a second round of consulting, and we will meet other groups and I invite everybody until January 25th to go online, please fill out the questionnaire and tell us how you feel from a student standpoint.”

–With files from La Presse Canadienne