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The information won’t be used for any legislation in Saskatchewan, but the provincial government hopes its new survey results on social media for kids will be taken into account federally.
On Thursday, the government unveiled the results of its survey on social media for kids that was sent out over the summer.
It found 86.34 per cent of people who responded support social media limits for kids under the age of 16. Nearly 14 per cent said “no,” but more than half of those did agree that there should be parental consent for kids to be on social media.
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Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr called the results “overwhelming,” saying parents spoke out loud and clear. She wasn’t surprised by the results.
The federal government introduced legislation to ban kids under 16 from social media in June, but Carr didn’t think that made the survey moot.
“I think it’s important to listen to the people that we work for. We’re here to serve Saskatchewan residents. We’re here to listen to them, and that’s what this survey did. We are listening to what they’re telling us,” said Carr.
When first announcing the survey, Premier Scott Moe indicated any kind of ban would more appropriately come from the federal government. Carr said on Thursday the results had already been sent to the federal government and the province is working out meetings to discuss them.
Laura Lawrence, executive director of Youth Matter Canada, said the results of the survey were very close to what the group had been hearing from youth – that they overwhelmingly believe social media exposes them to harmful content and that it impacts their mental health.
She said there are other products that are harmful to kids’ cognitive and social development that are regulated.
“There is legislation of many products like alcohol, gaming, tobacco, and these harmful products (social media) also require some sort of regulation. That’s the first step,” said Lawrence.
“The second step is educating and bringing awareness and helping families who are frustrated, who are tired, who are overwhelmed, navigate these tech spaces that absolutely have zero safeguards put in place by the tech companies.”
The survey also asked which social media sites should be included or excluded in a ban. It found that YouTube was the platform most frequently identified as warranting an exemption.
“It was really just giving a sense of, what do parents think actually is social media content, and that told us that they don’t think YouTube is, but we know it is,” said Carr.
Through its own work, Lawrence said youth have identified that YouTube is a concern.
“YouTube is one of the problems because of its addictive algorithm, the interface, the nonstop play, and many youth of young ages are exposed to harmful content on that platform,” she said.
Carr said the survey cost a total of about $180,000 to administer.
