As Meta faces a multi-billion-dollar settlement in the U.S. over claims that its platforms Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children, a recently published survey shows the scale of the problem locally in Ontario, where 94 per cent of students said they use social media every day, with a quarter of them logging five hours or more daily. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shared its 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) on Aug. 24 this year, which surveyed more than 11,000 students in grades 7 through 12 from 246 schools across the province. CAMH says the purpose of this survey, which is conducted every two years, is to identify epidemiological trends in student drug use, mental and physical health, and other risk behaviours while identifying risk and protective factors. The amount of time that students spend in front of a screen like their phone, TV, or computer in their free time has stayed consistent in the last few years, with more than three-quarters of students (78 per cent) spending three or more hours in front of one every day. Nearly 20 per cent of students report spending seven hours or more in front of a screen, far exceeding the two-hour daily cap for recreational use outlined in the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. Of all the grades, students in Grade 12 spend the most amount of time in front of their screens, with nearly 85 per cent of them spending three or more hours daily on them. Ryan Bird, chief communications officer of the Toronto District School Board, said the TDSB follows the provincial direction for phone use, which means phones are banned from Grades 1 through 6 and their use is restricted to non-instructional time for the remaining grades. The TDSB had launched a lawsuit of its own two years ago against several tech giants, including Meta, alleging various social media platforms were intentionally designed to be addictive to children and cause widespread harm, subsequently disrupting students’ education. The social media platforms tried to dismiss the case last year, but Ontario’s superior court struck the motion down, saying it is “arguable that an addictive product that interferes with the mental health and educational aspirations of students is a public nuisance that requires a remedy.” Meta recently settled to pay up to US$18 billion over the next decade in a federal trial alleging its apps were harmful for children. Under the deal, Meta will limit teen usage to two hours each day and block them from using it between midnight and 6 a.m. Meta will also disable most push notifications during school hours and create measures to restrict children from accessing mature content. Five hours or more on social media Though screen time encompasses more than time spent in front of a phone, the survey also revealed 94 per cent of students use social media every day with a quarter of them spending five or more hours on the apps. Female students are more likely to spend more time on social media, with 30 per cent indicating they spend at least five hours on it, while 19 per cent of male students report the same amount of use. Female students are also more likely to be bullied online (27.4 per cent), with cyberbullying most seen in grades 7 and 8. The number of students who spend at least five hours each day on social media has remained stable since 2023, when the survey was last taken, but the percentage of students has more than doubled since 2013, when just more than a tenth of students (11 per cent) reported spending that amount of time. Dr. Richa Agnihotri, a community pediatrician, said youth are often scrolling through social media platforms that feed various types of media they are not in control of. “What happens is that child or youth unsuspecting is actually just falling into that loop of staying engaged, and so because they’re not in control of what they see, they also can be exposed to things that are pretty dangerous online,” Dr. Agnihotri told CTV News Toronto and referenced Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s mantra that children are overprotected in the real world and underprotected online. “We may not actually know what they might be exposed to if you’re not—if parents are not supervising them at all times, and so the social media itself becomes a challenge,” Dr. Agnihotri said. Signs to look out for “Screens are here to stay, social media is going to be around, so it’s not necessarily about completely banning it for certain ages ... but it’s about how do we help children understand through a developmentally appropriate lens what is social media,” Dr. Agnihotri said. Increased social media use, Dr. Agnihotri says, is linked to an increased risk of mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Though the survey does not link social media use to these mental health concerns, OSDUHS saw just less than half of students (46 per cent) indicating experiencing moderate-to-serious levels of psychological distress and about half (51 per cent) report not eating or eating in a way to change their weight or shape at least once in the past month. There are some behaviours parents can look out for to see how dependent their child is on social media, Dr. Agnihotri says, like if they have a huge response to coming off it or if they have a hard time engaging in any activity not centred around screens. “If you notice the frequency of asking for the screen is going up, if the nature of their screen use is watching things that maybe are scaring them or increasing their anxiety in other ways … but then they are seeking the same things again, that’s a bit concerning as well,” she said. One out of every 10 students also report experiencing symptoms with problematic social media use, with nearly half (46.6 per cent) indicating trying to spend less time on it but failing to do so. Nearly 44 per cent reported using social media so they could avoid thinking about unpleasant things. Dr. Agnihotri says it is important for parents to supervise their child’s screen use and set some rules and guidelines around them, implementing privacy settings and engaging in open communication about screen time and social media use. It also helps when parents set the example that they want their child to follow. “It might be sitting down at the dinner table and creating a family media plan where everybody decides on what you’re going to use the screen for, when you’re going to use it, why you’re going to use it, how you’re going to use it, and then for how long, so that there is a duration set,” Dr. Agnihotri said, adding that deliberately planning alternative activities can also help. The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey is a cross-sectional survey conducted by CAMH every two years since 1977. The final sample of the 2025 survey included 11,108 students in grades 7 through 12 from 1,147 classes in 246 schools across 42 English and French public and Catholic school boards. With files from Reuters
