Legault says parents should limit kids' screen time — what do they need to know?

Quebec Premier François Legault has ruled out any legislation that would limit the time children can spend on screens. Instead, he said it's up to parents to regulate it.

There's growing evidence screen time is having a negative impact on children

"An entire generation of young people right now are having their brains rewired where they're losing thousands of hours a year of face-to-face interactions," said Dr. Perry Adler, a clinical psychologist at the Jewish General Hospital.

Adler said the result is higher rates of anxiety and depression.

"They are rewiring their brains so they have similar symptoms as autistic brains, where they're having trouble reading social cues, feeling comfortable and social situations," he added.

So, what do parents need to know?

"Your kids need boundaries," said Dr. Michelle Jackman, who is on the Canadian Pediatric Society's digital media taskforce.

She says as a general rule, children under two should not be allowed any screen time. From age two to four, less than an hour a day, and from five to 17, around two hours a day.

"We talk about this two hours as being in addition to what they maybe had during their school day. However, many families actually choose to not have this kind of extra screen time during the week because it displaces other important activities like socializing, interacting, doing sports, physical activity and sleep," Jackman said.

But both experts agree certain types of screen time are worse than others.

"All screen time, when it's above a certain number of hours per week, is detrimental.But social media use is, I think, more problematic," Adler said.

Scrolling on social media, he says, is actually quite anti-social and parents cannot always control what their children are seeing. While movies and educational television can be viewed as a family and discussed, "we're going to watch this movie together as a family and it's going to be an opportunity for us to spend time together and we really encourage that," Jackman said.

Jo-Anne Blouin founded the Montreal International Children's Film Festival 27 years ago and says the right content can help broaden children's world views.

"The goal is to show and offer kids here a panorama of the best of what's being done around the world, but also to open a window on the world, to see them, how other cultures live the kids' lives," Blouin said.

While legislation might not be the solution, experts agree governments and schools have an important role to play in helping people understand the downsides to excessive screen time.