Is technology is turning our kids into addicts?Short answer, in some cases, ‘yes.’ More than 12 per cent of Canadian teenage girls – almost one in eight – now show addiction-like symptoms in their relationship to their phones and social media. That looks like withdrawal, loss of control, emotional dependency – terms once associated more with substance abuse – but now increasingly used to describe the daily digital reality of young Canadians. Boys too, although they’re likely into more violent fare, see below..This, according to Robin Sherk, an Ontario-based parent volunteer with Unplugged Canada and tonight’s guest on Hannaford..Unplugged Canada is a relatively new cross-country grassroots movement of parents advocating for healthier childhood development, by delaying smartphone use and establishing a national minimum age for social media access. It has two overarching goals: First, to raise the social media age to 16 using mandatory age verification, and second to make sure media company use effective measures to comply.Meanwhile, Sherk explains Unplugged Canada chapters support families who wish to delay smartphones, without feeling isolated or outnumbered by peer pressure.But, the organization also engages in national advocacy, and is calling on Ottawa to adopt a minimum social-media age of 16 – an age now being considered by several jurisdictions internationally..It's not just the smartphone. Even more pernicious is the social media to which it gives access.Sherk: “While smartphones can be used responsibly and for practical safety purposes, social media platforms introduce a far more complex array of harms. They are engineered – algorithmically and psychologically – to maximize engagement. For teenagers, especially girls aged 11–13 and boys aged 13–15, this can create compulsive patterns of use, exposure to harmful or violent content, predator outreach, and negative social comparison.”Unlike books or television, says Sherk, these platforms are designed with feedback loops, emotional triggers, and data-driven personalization that younger users are not developmentally prepared to manage. .Teenage boys, she says, face particular challenges. While girls are likely to fall into patterns resembling addiction, boys more commonly encounter excessively violent content or are drawn into extremist ideologies. “Both are harmful,” she emphasized, “just in different ways.”A significant portion of the discussion focused on how age-assurance technology could help. Sherk describes emerging systems – already in use in Great Britain and Australia – that verify a user’s age without requiring government ID. (Methods include checking the longevity of an email address, or a zero-dollar credit-card verification.)Canada, she says, has already adopted a national standard for these technologies, meaning the framework for enforcement already exists. .Hannaford pressed on whether such measures could stay ahead of parental inconsistency.Sherk acknowledges families will always differ on when to give a child a phone, but argued that a national age minimum for social media is different: polling across 30 countries shows broad public support, including three-quarters of parents. She compared it to existing youth protections with respect to adult engagements – nightclubs for example, or gambling and alcohol – where society sensibly agrees that developmental readiness matters.Near the end of the interview, Sherk describes Unplugged Canada’s petition to Parliament, the meetings she has held with MPs from multiple parties, and the growing momentum for federal action.Responses so far have been polite and wide-ranging, (although then-Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault took the opportunity to tout Bill C-9, the instrument through which the Liberal government intends to make parts of the Bible illegal to preach.)Overall though, she calls the response positive. "Parents do not want another multi-year study or omnibus bill. I want to see us move – yesterday.”For more information, visit https://unpluggedcanada.com/Hannaford airs at seven o’clock.
