Prince Edward Island is suggesting limits on screen time and and breaks from screen usage for students with a new guideline for schools.
The guideline, released on Jan. 23, recommends limiting continuous screen time for elementary school students (ages 5–11) with a break every 30 minutes to stretch or move. For intermediate and high school students (ages 12–18), it recommends at least one break every hour for movement and advises light to vigorous physical activity throughout the day.
Screen time refers to any time spent on screen-based devices, such as interactive whiteboards, computers, tablets, TVs, smartphones, or gaming consoles, whether for educational or recreational purposes.
“While screens are present everywhere in our lives, it is our responsibility to help young people develop smart screen use behaviours that positively benefit their learning and wellbeing,” said Rob Lantz, P.E.I.’s minister of education and early years Rob Lantz, in a press release announcing the guideline.
Additionally, to help students focus, the guideline recommends reducing media multitasking—using a screen while doing other tasks—during classroom screen activities. It advises turning off screens, including background media, when not in use, to minimize distraction and encourage mindfulness. To help students establish healthy sleep habits, the guideline asks teachers to avoid assigning screen-based homework.
The guideline follows a provincial ministerial directive from last July that prohibited cellphone use in P.E.I. classrooms effective the upcoming school year. The announcement at the time stated that teachers will still have the flexibility to allow students in grades 7–12 to use devices for educational purposes.
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The P.E.I. announcement said the directive followed “national trends and the feedback heard from island educators.” Several provinces across the country have adopted similar cellphone bans in schools.
In April 2024, then-Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced that the province was introducing stricter cellphone policies in schools, requiring kindergarten to Grade 6 students to keep phones on silent and out of sight for the entire school day, while banning Grades 7–12 students from using cellphones during class unless directed by the educator. Lecce said Ontario’s 2019 initiative to restrict cellphone use during class was inconsistently adopted by school boards and thus created a “patchwork” of rules without enforcement. Lecce served as Ontario’s education minister from June 2019 to June 2024.
Last August, Manitoba and Saskatchewan introduced measures to limit cellphone use for K–12 students starting in the 2024–25 school year, aiming to improve focus and health. Similar restrictions on cellphones and mobile devices were introduced in Nova Scotia in June 2024 and in British Columbia in September 2024.
The P.E.I. government’s guideline highlight various harms of excessive screen time for school-age children, including physical issues like poor posture, neck and back pain, and eye strain. Mental and emotional impacts include heightened stress and anxiety, impaired emotional regulation, and addiction to gaming, social media, or the internet. Students could also suffer from negative impacts on cognitive development, such as reduced attention span, delayed language skills, and lower academic performance due to excessive screen time.
Additional risks include sleep disturbances from blue light exposure, lower self-esteem due to unrealistic standards and cyberbullying on social media, and impaired social skills from reduced in-person interactions.
