A newly released Statistics Canada study has found that nearly 40 per cent of Canadian youth appear to be exceeding screen time recommendations.
The study analyzed Canadian youth cohorts in two different points of time: in 2019, when they were aged 12 to 17, and in 2023, when the same group was aged 16 to 21.
The data shows 37 per cent of the group exceeded the recommendations in both 2019 and 2023, with only 14 per cent of youth meeting screen time guidelines.
As well, 49 per cent followed screen time guidelines in only one year.
The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommends that children and youth aged five to 17 years accumulate “no more than two hours per day of recreational screen time.”
Men and boys were found to be 40 per cent “more likely to exceed screen time guidelines in both years” than women and girls with 34 per cent.
About 58 per cent who met screen time guidelines in both 2019 and 2023 reported “excellent or very good mental health,” compared with 38 per cent of youth who exceeded guidelines in both years.
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In comparison to those who exceeded screen time recommendations, 25 per cent found that “most of their days were not at all stressful,” and 38 per cent reported “excellent or very good mental health.”
In addition, among youth who met screen time guidelines in only one of the two years, well-being outcomes were found to be “mixed,” with results “generally falling between those of youth who met the guidelines and those of youth who exceeded them.”
Also, youth who met screen time recommendations in both 2019 and 2023 were “less likely” to report body image issues, with 75 per cent who met the guidelines saying in 2023 that they “never felt preoccupied with a desire to be thinner or felt so only a few times within the past 12 months,” compared to 69 per cent of those who “exceeded screen time recommendations in both years.”
Average grades were also found to be higher among youth who met screen time recommendations in both surveyed years. Youth who met screen time recommendations were “more likely than those who exceeded them” to achieve an overall grade of 70 per cent or higher.
A June 2025 Psychological Bulletin journal studied nearly 300,000 kids worldwide, finding that children who spend more time on devices like computers, tablets, smartphones, TVs and gaming consoles are “at higher risk of developing problems like anxiety, low self-confidence and aggression later in life.”
Youth who met screen time recommendations in both surveyed years were “twice as likely” to meet physical activity guidelines in 2023 than those who exceeded screen time guidelines.
In addition, youth who met physical activity guidelines in 2019 but not screen time guidelines reported “better well-being in terms of low levels of stress” (37 per cent) “and positive physical health” (76 per cent.)
The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines state that for “optimal health benefits,” youth from five to 17 “should achieve high levels of physical activity, low levels of sedentary behaviour and sufficient sleep each day.”
This entails “an accumulation of at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity” and should be done an average of three days a week.
Children aged five to 13 years old should also be getting “uninterrupted nine to 11 hours of sleep per night” and those aged 14 to 17 years old should be getting “eight to 10 hours per night.”
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