Dear friends of the Dais,

Kids and technology are at the centre of growing concern across Canada. 

From social media’s impact on mental health to how smartphones affect focus and learning in schools, families, educators, and youth themselves are asking big questions. How can we build healthier, smarter relationships with tech? This newsletter edition explores our latest research, emerging strategies, and solutions to help young people thrive in a digital world.

Our Screen Break initiative, the first of its kind in Canada, is mobilizing around one key aspect of digital health and balance among young people: phone restrictions that have rolled out in all 10 Canadians provinces. The Dais team is hosting roundtables across Canada, inviting a broad range of K-to-12 voices to explore the on-the-ground experience in schools during the first year of provincial phone restrictions. 

We’ve visited Atlantic Canada, Western Canada, and Ontario - and will be heading to the Prairies and Quebec in the coming weeks. We’re hearing diverse voices, and compelling conversations about where we go from here. This summer, we’ll share a summary of key insights about phone restriction implementation across Canada, with practical guidance on “what’s working” ahead of the fall 2025 school year.

In the meantime, in this newsletter:

📕Read: about Canadians’ attitudes on K-12 phone restrictions in classrooms, with new Dais polling out today

🏆Meet: Canada’s first Youth Champions Network, launched at the Dais, to promote healthier digital habits – an initiative for young people by young people.  

🎒Join: our upcoming Kids, Tech and the Classroom Masterclass on June 6th to acquire practical knowledge, skills and tools for successfully implementing school phone restrictions. 

📦 Get: a Dais Digital Literacy Toolkit for your classroom or school, designed in partnership with Ontario’s Ministry of Education, for educators teaching students in Grades 4-9. 

Most importantly, it’s time to listen. At the Dais, our call to action in 2025 is to enable and empower young people across Canada to engage and share more about their relationships, and experiences, with technology – rather than dictating terms and conditions to them. 

We’ll have more practical resources, policy insights, events and learning opportunities to get involved over the next year. If you’re interested in partnering with us on this Canada-wide initiative to improve the relationships that young people have with tech, please reach out to our Senior Policy Analyst Rajender Singh at rajender.singh@torontomu.ca. 

Yours,

André Côté

Acting Executive Director
The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University

Phone Restrictions in K-12 Schools:

National Survey on Canadian Sentiment

Provincial governments across Canada have sought to address growing concerns about screens in classrooms by introducing mobile phone restriction policies.

Amidst this backdrop, we surveyed Canadians' views on phone restriction policies and support for broader online safety regulation for youth.

We found that Canadians are very supportive of social media restrictions for those under 16, and widely support phone restrictions in schools – but are divided on how effective these policies are.