General | British Columbia | Prince Edward Island
General
AboutKidsHealth - tips for healthy screen use
AboutKidsHealth is a health education resource that equips children, youth, and caregivers with reliable, evidence-based, and easy to understand health information so they can become a partner in their own health care. This resource provides an overview of how screen time affects physical and mental healthy. It also provides parents with tips to limit their children's screen time and shares some additional resources to help address this issue.
Canadian Paediatric Society – digital media and screen time
The Canadian Paediatric Society works to support and advance child and youth health. Their digital media and screen time webpage offers resources for families to help them promote balanced and healthy use of digital media and screen time among school-aged children and teens. The “Screen time and digital media” resource directed towards parents outlines strategies to promote positive media habits for their children. Highlights of this article are summarized in a fact sheet (Pdf) and a poster (Pdf). These resources can also be used by school health professionals to support parents who are aiming to develop healthy relationships between their child(ren) and technology.
Live 5-2-1-0 – Screen Time Fact Sheet
The Live 5-2-1-0 Screen Time Fact Sheet provides evidence for the guidelines of no more than two hours of recreational screen time a day, including its implications for youth health and well-being. This resource was developed to help Live 5-2-1-0 partners and stakeholders understand why it is important for families to find a balanced approach to the use of screens.
Media Smarts – digital and media literacy resources
Media Smarts provides a variety of digital and media literacy programs and resources to educators and parents so they can help youth develop the critical thinking skills they need for interacting with media, and tackle internet safety concerns in a positive way. Resources offered to tackle digital issues cover topics such as cyberbullying, excessive internet use, gambling, online hate, privacy, and sexting.
ParticipACTION – 5 simple tips to help reduce kids' screen time
ParticipACTION is a non-profit organization that promotes physical activity amongst Canadians. These simple tips include parents modelling healthy screen use, prioritizing screen-free times, and incorporating physical activity into screen usage.
Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada – Reducing Sedentary Behaviour
PHE Canada is an organization that works to enhance equitable access to physical and health education across Canada. Their goal is to help all Canadian youth live healthy active lives. PHE features resources with recommendations to reduce school-related sedentary behavior and screen use. Their Recommendations and Implementation Steps article for families, educators, school health professionals and administrative staff that outlines recommendations and implementation steps to reduce sedentary behavior using the four M’s approach (Manage, Meaningful, Model, Monitor). More resources on this topic can be found on the side menu of this web page.
The World Health Organization (WHO) – excessive screen use and gaming during COVID-19 (Pdf)
The infographic on excess screen use and gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic provides tips to parents, school authorities, health and social care providers, gaming companies, and policy makers on how to increase internet safety and reduce screen time among students.
The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth
The 24-Hour Movement Guideline provides children and youth irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status with a general outline of what their 24-hour day should look like regarding time spent participating in physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behavior. These guidelines outline the recommended amount of screen and sitting time. Consider working to implement and encourage these guidelines, which include limiting extended periods of time sitting and more than 2 hours of recreational screen time per day, in the classroom and at home, and access the toolkits for students, educational staff, and parents/guardians.
British Columbia
BC Children’s Hospital – Keeping Tech in Check
Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre at BC Children’s Hospital aims to provide parents and youth with a variety of resources to help promote healthy behaviours. “Keeping Tech in Check hub” provides a variety of resources to promote healthy and safe technology use in families. Building Healthy Screen Habits is a resource that shares some key tips for balancing tech use. These tips will help parents and caregivers to fit tech use in with their family’s interests and priorities and learn how to model healthy tech habits. Check out their Resource Library for a large selection of resources on a wide variety of mental health topics.
Prince Edward Island
Cybersafe Care is an educational campaign focused on equipping educators, parents, and guardians with online and in-person resources to learn how to keep children and youth safe while using technology and spending time online. A variety of resources are offered on topics such as cyber-safety, social media, gaming, relationships, exploitation and images. In addition, a list of external resources related to issues around cyber-safety, legal information, educational materials, and help lines are provided in the “getting help” section.