Wellness Wednesdays: ‘Digital dementia’ in children

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:01][music] [music] [music] [music] more research finds that kids with too much screen time can get some braid development similar to that of a person with early onset Alzheimer's.

[00:00:29]>> Yeah. So, for a look at this growing issue and ways to cut out the risks of digital dementia for our kids, we're joined this morning by Alexia Paleo, staff scientist with the Slate Family Center for Youth in Transition at CAMH.

[00:00:42]Uh, Alexia, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this. I came across a story because 60 Minutes Australia did a story about this and it really shows some concerning trends that you know toddlers with 2 to three hours of screen time which is kind of the recommendation and teenagers with six to hour six to eight hours of screen time are showing patterns in their brains that are similar with people with dementia Alzheimer's. How concerning is this to you and what are your staff seeing there?

[00:01:13]So I think it's important to to kind of an acknowledge that this uh you know this concept of digital dementia is really just a buzzword. What it's speaking to is the potential impacts that excessive screen use and social media could have on uh brain development uh specifically attention, memory uh as well as our kind of ability to regulate our emotions.

[00:01:40]When we think about these kind of critical developmental windows, one of the kind of main um age categories for this is uh is youth. Um you know at that time youth are going through you know puberty. They're navigating changes in their brain development and a lot of these very important aspects of the brain are turning on. And this comes at a time as well uh for the onset of mental illness to for many young people.

[00:02:12]And um what we see when we look at the research is you know small to moderate associations between excessive uh social media use specifically and um you know worse mental health uh outcomes and you know there is a need for for more higher quality research and studies in this area. Yeah, doctor. It's interesting.

[00:02:35]You know, on the one hand, you know, iPads and iPhones, etc., can sometimes be used as almost pacifying devices to keep kids calm, but on the flip side, you're also trying to get them in front of a screen. So, you understand technology these days, schools are teaching with them and things like that, but kids can't distinguish the difference between it's just a screen is a screen to them. So, how difficult is that? um you know either from a scientific perspective or even just straight up a parenting perspective that you know trying to get kids to understand on the one hand this isn't for your development on the other hand it's hurting your development.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah it's such an important point and what we're starting to see now is the re research shift to that. um we're playing a bit of catch-up because most of of what's been done is in the area of excessive screen use and like you mentioned there's more to that, right?

[00:03:22]Like how we use um these devices and how we use social media is likely more important than excessive screen use, right? Like we do most of our workday is done in front of a screen. you know, like you mentioned, it's in schools. And so there is a definitely a role here for parents to play as well to um you know, help educate their their children on, you know, what are kind of safe and healthier ways to be using devices and social media. Um you know, I think they can uh prioritize, you know, doing things together as a family that don't involve screens. Uh and this also is is an issue that's really important to youth as well. We did a study at KAMH where we spoke to young people about their experiences with cyber bullying and how to safeguard social media and they felt like there was a really big education gap for them and the um the what what when they did kind of learn about social media and cyber bullying, it was really a one-time workshop more of this type of stranger danger um type um type information, right? like don't give your credit card to people, but not really like how do you take care of yourself emotionally and youth just to kind of close on this point, youth told us that they were actually doing a lot of self-organizing. So, creating their own little groups to of a few students to really teach each other like this is how I make my social media feed healthier. Maybe it's following people that make you feel that don't make you feel bad about your body, you know, things like that. So, this is really important to youth and and we should be involving them in the conversation as well.

[00:04:59]Yeah, I understand you work for Camage, which obviously deals so much with addiction. Dr. Paleo, uh, so when it comes to, you know, advice for parents, I mean, anecdotally, I've showed my kids these article. I sent it to their cell phones. They ignored it. They didn't watch this 60-minute story about dementia, and they think it's BS because they think it's there's so much misinformation out there. And it it's become so hard that, you know, I have a safe in my house to lock up the phones.

[00:05:27]They crack the safe. it it feels like for so many parents struggling like phone addiction is a real issue. Does CAMH help with issues like this?

[00:05:36]>> Yep. So, we do have a we have a clinic that you know addresses problem kind of addiction issues related to gambling and we are seeing um people come in with um addiction to their devices essentially and and what that we refer to that as like problem screen use, problem social media use and it it it we did an Ontario survey. So, we do a survey called called the OSDAS survey and this goes out to all Ontario high school students every two years and we did find that 9% of people are um showing or reporting symptoms of problematic social media use. So, it it it's really use that and and like you mentioned it's use that you know is difficult to control and has led to conflicts with family members and and things like that. So, we are seeing that out there. Um, but I think a broader kind of education um, strategy is really important here. Uh, and I think that when we talk to youth about this stuff, it's we we know youth don't really respond the best to rules, right? You know, you maybe tell them not to do something and maybe that means they want to do it. Uh, so really finding a way to like how do we deliver this information in a youth friendly way. Um, you know, and and framing it from like an education standpoint. rather than you know even the word ban right like cell phone ban and you know it it's not probably a word that youth really get that excited about to have something banned and you know I think I think we can look to you know what we've done in terms of vaping and tobacco and you know and look at these kind of other areas and what's been effective and not effective.

[00:07:16]>> Okay. Uh Dr. Alexia Paleo, staff scientist from the Slate Family Center for Youth and Transition at Camage.

[00:07:22]Really appreciate your time and your thoughts this morning. Thank you. Thank you so much.